The Allspark needs a body
by Mrs.Knockout
Summary: I created worlds, creatures, minds and souls.Bonds full of love, hate and passion.I was worshipped by the children of my energy and wisdom.I was lost in the darkness of this universe and brought to a world, a body capable of expressing who I was.A being, so strong and yet so weak compared to what I had created until that very point. Capable of so much more than it had ever thought.
1. the meteor shower

_Hiya guys! Wazzup?_**  
**

_So here's the first part of my Christmas countdown story. Actually, it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, I believe... It just popped up in my head and there was a story which would fit perfectly into four chapters. Might as well do an epiloque for new years day if you guys want one ;)_

_Alright then, enjoy the first chapter!_

* * *

**The Allspark Needs a Body**

Part 1: The Meteor Shower

_Third POV_

"Marco. Marco!" Ratchet pressed a key on the big keyboard connected to the main computer and cut Miko's voice off.

"What is it?!"

He could hear her laughter from the other end of the line. "Dude, I thought Bulk had GroundBridge duty. Where is he?"

The former CMO rolled his optics and answered in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Bulkhead is with Bumblebee on a mission in the west of Europe."

He thought a moment of how he could get rid of the little plague when something came to his mind.

"Shouldn't you be in detention right now?"

Silence.

"I should... yeeeaah..." she answered slowly, obviously not liking the way this conversation turned out like. "You skipped it, didn't you? Bulkhead won't be happy about that."

That was the second when the GroundBridge opened and Arcee and Jack came through.

"So... how am I gonna get to you guys?" Ratchet cut off the connection and turned to his original employment – decoding the Iacon database. He smirked and could swear he could hear Miko's, _"He just hung up? RUUUUDE!"_, even from across such a distance.

Jack laughed and Arcee leaned down to him.

"Do you think that was Miko?"

The human simply nodded with a wide grin on his face and threw his bag over the railing of the lower platform where it landed on a large couch placed in front of the TV.

Miko didn't try to call them again. She understood Ratchets message. It was her problem. He wasn't interested in helping her with something as unimportant as her way of transportation to the base. She would have to wait until detention was over, so that Bulkhead would come and pick her up. Oh joy!

An hour later, they both drove through the entrance of the Autobot base, accompanied by Bumblebee. Bulkhead waited for her to get out until he transformed and Miko gave Ratchet the well-known death-glare. It wasn't as impressive as Ratchets death-glare though. Ratchet didn't even notice it.

Irritated, the little girl stomped up the stairs and threw herself onto the couch where she plugged her MP3-player in and listened to some music. Bulkhead didn't look happy at all when he saw that. Normally, Miko would ask him what they should do or whether they could go out to beat some Decepticon tailpipes, play dune bashing – whatever that was –, but today, her mood seemed to be strangely bad. She never acted like this.

"What do you think Bulkhead? Probably a pretender?" Jack whispered to the girl's guardian in a playfully serious voice.

Arcee smirked and leaned against a wall a few meters away from Ratchet, "What did you do to her? She's never been so quiet before."

The CMO made no effort on answering, so the Autobot femme shrugged it off and opened a bridge for Bumblebee, so that he could go and pick up his charge.

"Ratchet," This was the first time Miko had heard Optimus' voice today. "Prepare a GroundBridge to the following coordinates. It appears that this night will bring us a meteor shower."

Miko abruptly picked out her headphones and stared at the screen with excitement, "Really? Bulk, I know what we're gonna do today!"

But Bulkhead just shook his head, "Isn't that dangerous?"

A short pause at the other end of the connection, "That is exactly why I want you to come here. It may be, though I am not entirely certain. Our greatest problem would be if the Decepticons find something valuable in the meteors. Otherwise, I doubt that our human friends would be in any danger. But we will still have to look out for any Cybertronian signals."

Miko wasn't the only one who smiled excitedly, like a little child that has seen the presents under the Christmas tree. Raf and Bumblebee had just arrived to listen to the conversation – now all three of them were cheerfully and silently staring at the screen above Ratchets head with a big grin on each face.

The connection cut off and Ratchet locked on to the coordinates Optimus had sent him. Jack and Arcee didn't seem to understand why they all were so agitated. Bulkhead just raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged it off and transformed so that Miko could get inside.

They arrived on top of a large mountain. Miko wasn't good with those things, but even she knew, where they were. Her parents had once taken her here in her holidays. They were in the Italian Alps. The sky wouldn't even have a single cloud glide on it and when she got out her feet met snow for the first time since over three years. Raf saw the snow for the first time in his whole life and couldn't get the smile off his face.

_This is a good place to see snow for the first time_, Miko thought.

Optimus stood in front of them in his Robot form. Apparently, he didn't believe that any human would cross their path. Jack sat on top of a rock near the abyss and Arcee obviously disliked that, but she didn't want to say anything. She didn't like to sound like Jack's mother and she knew that he wouldn't be so stupid and fall down.

"Sooo... when are the rockies comin'?" Miko asked in her typical stupid-question voice.

"The meteors will be visible after the sunset," Optimus answered, but Miko only shook her head and made a confused gesture that said 'go on or I don't understand a word'.

"In half an hour," Raf translated. Why should she know what time it was in Europe? That wasn't her job.

She decided to explore the area until the meteors would come. It was a huge mountain which went over into other huge mountains. Boy, this whole country seemed to be a huge mountain! Miko started to freeze slightly, because she only wore a T-shirt. How could she have known she would go from the desert of Nevada into the Alps of Italy? It wasn't her fault, after all. She wouldn't mind if she'd get a cold. That would only give her a reason to skip some school.

The heavy footsteps behind her, made it obvious to the girl that Bulkhead was following her.

"Where's the Doc?" she asked without turning around.

"Ratchet preferred to handle GroundBridge duty."

The little girl froze in front of the Prime's feet and he had to smirk inwardly.

Miko made a pirouette like movement and looked up at him.

"I didn't expect you to follow me, you know? I thought it was Bulkhead..."

The Prime ignored the mix-up with his graceful steps and the heavy, uncontrolled ones from his comrade.

"You should not separate yourself too far from the others. I want you all in my sight, in case Megatron found something."

Miko raised an eyebrow, "And? Did he?"

Optimus lifted her up and simply answered, "Neither their, nor our sensors detected any unfamiliar energon signals... yet."

She pursed her lips, aware of the last parts meaning. And as Miko was, she slightly hoped they would find something.

Optimus wasn't surprised that she hadn't expected him to get her back. Actually, he didn't like having the little girl out of his sight. Just as Rafael. He wanted them both safe. Since the accident with the Dark Energon had happened, half of his worries had been about these two human children. Jack, in Optimus' opinion, could take care for himself. Just as Ratchet had said, his character was very similar to Orion Pax's ones back on Cybertron. He wouldn't have to worry much about him. Even Optimus thought that Arcee was much too overprotective with him. But Miko and Raf were both so innocent. They weren't capable of understanding the reasons of this very war. Jack was and he also understood the dangers it brought with it to be a human involved.

They arrived back at the group and the Autobot leader sat her down next to Rafael, who was chatting with Bumblebee about the meteors. It appeared that none of their human friends had ever seen a meteor shower before, except for Jack, who looked slightly bored. Arcee stood next to Bulkhead who picked up Miko again and sat her on his shoulder. Optimus was glad that Bulkhead was her guardian. He was capable of looking out for her.

"Hey guys! Is that a meteor?" Miko asked excitedly.

Every gaze turned towards the sky and really; three, lightly glowing sparks headed towards planet earth. All of them had a glowing tail following after.

"Indeed, Miko." the Autobot leader answered and sent his medic a comm link to inform him. The respond was quick and short.

::Already scanning.::-Ratchet

Though Optimus wasn't entirely certain, whether his premonition was correct, he maintained alerted. Unlike Arcee, who was now making fun of a special little girl, who seemingly had worries the meteors could crash into them, which was why she had taken out her cellphone to take an amount of pictures.

"Bulk, can we get any closer?" she asked hopefully, when the first meteor disappeared in the atmosphere. Miko didn't even wait for Bulkheads answer. With a graceful jump, her feet slid down her guardians arm and landed unharmed on the ground. But they didn't stop at that. In less than a second, the little girl had disappeared around the corner and the last thing to be heard was a loud "Cool!"

Of course everyone followed her, though with a loud sigh, but just as it always was with Miko, she pulled trouble to her like a magnet. Her fragile, little frame had leaned over the rim to examine the area beneath her, just in case the meteor didn't got destroyed, but made a crash-landing down there. Nobody noticed that the only thing giving her hold was the, for them, friable rock. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, as the heavy footsteps brought the ground to shiver, and clung onto the rock to hard. It broke and her lips formed an 'o' as her body fell over and took her down the rim. None of them could catch her in time. There was a hollow sound when her small frame hit the ground and everything went silent.

"Aaaah," they heard her sigh. "Damn, why does it have to be stone? Why can't it be a mountain out of pillows?"

Jack, Bulkhead, Raphael and Bumblebee, fell into a deep, relieved laughter. Arcee laid a hand over her spark. Only Optimus stayed as he was. Not convinced. Something told him, this was much worse than it appeared to be.

That was, when the other meteors came.

* * *

_Miko's POV_

I gently rubbed my aching head, surprised that it wasn't bleeding, though the fall hadn't been that deep, because I'd landed on a ledge only a few feet beneath where I had fallen down, when the sky started to glow again.

"Oh, where is my cellphone?!" I called out irritated. Why did I always have to lose it, when the best opportunities for photos presented themselves?

I was too busy searching my cellphone, so that I didn't notice that one of the many meteors didn't disappear in the atmosphere as it should. Well, at least not until it got so close to me, that it was impossible not to notice it. It didn't come close enough that I could have touched it, though.

The meteor crashed, about 600 feet beneath me into the mountain. You could have thought that I was lucky it didn't hit me, but I wasn't lucky at all. The crash had brought the whole mountain to a shiver. Terrified of the unexpected movements in my ledge, I looked up to see where Bulk and the others were. My guardian and best bud just stood there, eyes widened in shock. Arcee and Bumblebee held onto the Mountain tight, just as they held on to Jack and Raphael. All eye pairs set on me. Except for one.

Optimus stared into a completely different direction. Well, not completely different, but not me either. He stared behind me, or above me or whatsoever. That made me slightly curious, for what was there, behind me. I turned around, and looked down. The rock crumbled away, nearly powdered and created a giant whole in the mountain, directly under me. I wasn't good in those things either, but even I knew that my tiny ledge wouldn't be able to bare this. I froze, suddenly aware of what had terrified Optimus like this and instead of leaving the world brave and in honor, I freaked out. No doubt I wouldn't survive this, if big guy didn't save me. But I knew he would. He always did!

I held on to my thought or hope or whatever it was supposed to be while I was hyperventilating and screaming at myself for not being able to move, but when I realized, that everything was in some sort of slow motion and with a sharp crack my ledge broke, I gave up and knew that not even Optimus would be able to save me now. So, I started to scream.

* * *

_Optimus' POV_

No matter what I would do, the quakes my body would cause would only make the situation worse. So I couldn't do anything else, than to watch how the little girl, terrified by what was about to happen, fell down the mountain with a high-pitched scream, a cloud of rumble following shortly behind.

::Ratchet, I need...::-Optimus

::The Decepticons are arriving! I can track their signals. But I can't tell how many of them...::-Ratchet

::Ratchet I NEED an Emergency GroundBridge!::-Optimus

Suddenly, the comm link went dead. No answer. Was Ratchet stunned about what he had said?

::But the Con's didn't arrive yet.::-Ratchet

::I need one for Miko.::-Optimus

The words were hard for me. Too hard. I had never wanted, or even thought I would have to say them.

When the rumble had ended and the mountain was stable again, we could see that Miko had not hit the actual ground, but another ledge. This time a much bigger one, which would also hold our weight. I transformed and raced down, sometimes transforming another time, to avoid hitting rocks and then transforming again, to become faster. I heard the others following me, less quick, because of their charges, but I had to reach her!

When my feet, hit the ground, I didn't need to search for Miko. Because all of a sudden, one corner of the ledge began to glow slightly. It was nearly an unrecognizable glow, but when I heard Miko's pain filled scream, I immediately knew what had happened. And I internally cursed myself for not having prevented Miko from this.

* * *

_Miko's POV, shortly before_

And again I felt the hollow impact with pain following shortly behind. But this pain was different. I heard the cracks of my bones when I crashed into the rocks and I felt how my skin got torn apart as the rocks rained on top of me. It was a miracle that I wasn't already dead, I knew that. But I had the bad feeling that that wasn't about to last very long.

Another rock. More pain. Blood. Don't cry. Then, there was something else, drowning the pain. Desire. What did I desire? My brain gave my body strange orders. _Desire to the left! _I looked left and my head asked me what the hell was going on right now, and so a strange rock, or meteor or whatsoever, came into my sight. Strange, because it was nearly a perfect cube, except for some shards which had already been torn out. There were odd signs or glyphs on it, which somehow reminded me of the Cybertronian ones Bulkhead had painted, back when he'd had the formula in his brain... I had to shiver at that thought. Seeing Bulkhead not remembering me, was the most horrible thing I could imagine.

I crawled closer to this rock-cube-thingy, ignoring the pain all over my body, and my hand, stretched out in awe, touched it. It was cold, felt somehow strangely soft and was obviously made out of metal, though no metal I had ever touched before... I guessed. This was probably what Optimus was interested in... But what could this thing do? It was a metal rock! He probably needed the inscriptions on it. Bad thing I lost my cellphone.

I just opened my eyes, to scream for Optimus, because my legs wouldn't allow me to stand up, when I realized, that all of the pain was gone. My fingertip, which was still attached to the rock-cube-thingy felt a slight vibration, a light stream of energy, when you touch something that is not as high powered as an electrical fence but stronger than a slight tingle. Why would this thing have electricity inside it?

Then, suddenly the pain came back, but this time more intense. I felt my bones healing and my cuts closing, but it burned so much, I wanted it to stop!

_Just take your finger off that thing! _I thought to myself. But it was impossible. My finger was like a part of that thing. And when the thing started to glow slightly, and I knew that there wasn't anything left of my body to heal, I felt my brain explode. And with another high-pitched scream of me, everything went black.

* * *

_Optimus' POV_

The first thing I saw was the blood, spilled into every direction. Then, her lifeless body, neither breathing nor giving any activity in the scanner, laid next to the Allspark, which slowly fell into dust.

"Miko," I whispered under my breath. The Allspark did not interest me at all. My hand carefully wrapped around her fully intact body. There was no possible injury that could have killed her. But she did not breathe!

::Ratchet, now!::-Optimus

The blue glowing tunnel appeared in front of me and I, without turning around, jogged through. I had a presentiment of what could have happened, but I needed Ratchet to prove it. He stared in shock as I carried Miko's lifeless frame into the base.

"What happened?" I did not answer. It was a familiar sentence with a déjà-vu effect.

Gently, my fingers laid her down on one of the berths in Ratchets medical bay. Immediately, a scan flew over her body. Then another and another.

"Is she..." I started, as the others came rushing in. Bulkheads head frantically turning into all directions until he spotted her.

"She is alive, but I don't really... I can't..."

Heavy footsteps running closer, "You can't what?! What happened to her?!"

Bulkhead furiously pushed me aside. I didn't mind. The only thing that mattered was Miko's well-being.

"The energy signature is stronger than everything I have ever seen." That confirmed my presentiment.

"Ratchet, what does that mean?" Rafael asked, his voice filled with concern.

"The Allspark," I whispered. Silence. I did not realize it, I was thinking too hard.

Could the Allspark's entire energy have been led into Miko's body? That would explain her healed injuries and her scream. Also it would explain why the Allspark's vessel got destroyed.

"I thought the metal dust there had been the Allspark," Jack stated dumbly.

Normally, irritating me was very hard, but Jack did it right now.

"The Allspark is not destroyable. Its energy can never be used up. Its knowledge can never get lost. The Allspark is only something existent when it has a vessel, so it always takes the next suitable form if its destruction is imminent. But now, that the cube is destroyed..."

Bulkhead sucked in the air around him, "Miko!"

* * *

_Megatron's POV, Decepticon Warship_

"Starscream!" My voice resounded through the aisles and several Drones turned around, just to bow or get blasted by my plasma cannon.

"Yes, my master?" My traitorous second in command sneaked into the control room.

"Failure is not being tolerated, Starscream. Where is the Allspark?" I hissed, pleased to see him wincing at my tone.

"We send our best troops to recover it Lord Megatron, but..."

I growled. How dared this unworthy flyer tell me he failed again?

"But?" I helped him with a dangerously gentle voice.

"It was... beyond recovery."

_Beyond recovery? _"WHAT is that supposed to mean?!"

Now, I stood right in front of him, glaring him down. He snickered nervously and turned around to shout at one of the drones.

"Bring me the Allspark!"

They bowed before me and hurried away, leaving Starscream and me alone.

"Should you truly have disappointed me again, Starscream..." I let my blade come out of my armor. He nodded hastily, stepping back a little. He knew better than anybody else what would await him.

One of the Drones reappeared with a small vessel in its servo. Starscream took it, and opened it, to present me... nothing. "Where is the ALLSPARK?!"

"R-right here, my master."

It wasn't nothing. Only dust. Metal dust.

"It got destroyed... by the Autobots."

Another growl escaped my throat, "You fool! The Allspark cannot be destroyed! If the cube got destroyed, the Allspark has now a new vessel."

Starscream's face went blank. He knew something.

"Where is the ALLSPARK?!" I repeated, but this time even more forcefully.

"The girl," Starscream suddenly whispered. "The human friend of the Autobot called Bulkhead! She touched the Allspark before it fell to dust!"

A grin spread across my face. Yes. This would be it.

"Prepare all troops! Get Soundwave in here! We will retrieve what rightfully belongs to me!"

* * *

_Ratchet's POV, Autobot Base_

There was nothing I could do. Her vitals appeared stable but her consciousness wouldn't return. The Energon inside her body did not seem to affect her well-being, but I had no idea of how her mind had reacted to the irruption of the Allspark into her. No doubt, she was now doing the job of the cube before its destruction. But to what price?

"Unfortunately, I cannot do anything to help her. We must wait and see."

Bulkhead, kneeling in front of Miko's berth, nodded sadly. Either the impact or one of the falling stones had cut the bands that had held her hair together, so that her black hair now floated over her shoulders like a thick, gleaming liquid. I had to confess, she looked more grown-up, this way.

Jack and Rafael sat next to her on the berth. Or next to her body. It made me sick to know that I couldn't help her coming back. That I couldn't help her at all. It was just the same as with Bumblebee. I had said exactly the same when the troops had found him back in Tyger Pax and I had examined his voice box after the rest of the body had been repaired: _"Unfortunately, I cannot do anything to help him. We must wait and see." _It had never left me cold. I had always hated that on being a medic. I had chosen this path to help, not to wait and see. That was Perceptor's job!

* * *

_Third POV, Autobot Base_

Three long days. Bulkhead had waited three long days for Miko to wake up. Seven times had the others driven away with their charges without him. Seven times had he sat alone in the base with a not-responding Miko at his side. Seven times had Optimus watched him with a pitiful gaze and had shaken his head. Thousands of times had Ratchet said he couldn't do anything. Bulkhead was so tired of it.

It was morning. The sun rose and the weekend started. Jack and Raf would come sooner and stay longer than usually. June had a further education and Raf's parents thought he was staying with Jack – which actually was true.

The gate opened and all four of them came raced into the main room. He was still in the medical bay. Not even attempting to walk over and say them hello. He knew they would come to him and Miko.

It didn't take much more than five minutes for them to come. And not only them. Optimus had joined them. Ratchet had been in the medical bay all along, but none of those two had even tried to start a conversation.

"Hey, Bulk," Arcee said in her gentle voice. She wasn't really the best one at comforting others, but Bulkhead didn't need comfort anyway. He needed Miko.

"She's gonna wake up, don't worry," Rafael said with a confident smile on his face and hopped up the berth.

Jack joined him, "Yeah. Miko's tough. Nothing's gonna get her down that easy."

Optimus laid a comforting hand on Bulkhead's shoulder, "Miko is strong. She will make it. I am certain with that." And though Bulkhead knew that Optimus would never lie to him, he doubted that the Autobot leader was right.

Shortly after everyone had returned to their original activities, Miko's vitals changed. Some of the lines on Ratchet's main computer rose and fell rapidly and others started to blink in a glowing red. The former CMO hurried over to the little girl's body and flew a quick scan.

"She's waking up!" he announced either nervous or excited. Everyone hustled around her berth, wanting to see her wake up, until Ratchet came. "Zap-dap-dap! What do you think are you doing? Give her space to breathe!" And everyone stepped back. The bots knew the consequences of disregarding his orders. None of them was in need of another dent from a wrench.

Jack and Raf didn't know and hopped onto the berth again when they thought the former CMO wouldn't see it, just to get sat back down on the ground by, guess who, Ratchet only seconds after they had touched the metal, "_What _did I just say?"

The only one Ratchet tolerated near Miko, was Bulkhead. But probably only because he knew he wouldn't get the colossus away from the kid.

It was silent, except for the Doc's footsteps, while he was looking at some of the ratings. Through the silence, a slight noise came to the ears of the present ones. A slight whimper. Everyone, except for Optimus of course, leaned closer. And closer. Closer...

"Hey! How many times do I have to repeat myself?!" Even Optimus winced at the CMO's sudden outburst and the sound of a wrench. Bumblebee rubbed his head and chirped complaining.

Her eyelashes flickered. Her lips moved and she mumbled something not understandable.

"Miko? Wake up, come back to me," Bulkhead whispered and surprised everyone with his choice of words. Bulkhead had never seemed as the soft type of guy and he actually, certainly wasn't. Miko had seemed to change many things in him. And when they all held their breaths, her eyes opened and each and every one of them stared into a tunnel of green. Then suddenly, a horrifying cry escaped her throat.

Ratchet was just about to give her a quick examination, when the agonizing scream tortured his audio receptors. Faster than visible, the little girl jumped off the berth and pressed herself into a corner furthest away from the Bot's on the upper platform. Her little heart beat about three times as fast as it should and the CMO doubted that was good for her condition. She should rest, not run around like a hunted animal.

Jack was the first one, realizing what was going on. He lifted his hands in a surrendering manner and walked slowly up to her.

"Hey, Miko. It's me, Jack. No need to be afraid."

The closer he came, the faster went her breath and her heartbeat. Miko pressed herself closer against the wall and looked around panicked. Obviously trying to find a way out. Jack came a bit closer. He now was separated from her by about three and a half feet. Only one more step and he would have overcome the distance...

That was when Miko attacked. She caught Jack totally off guard, when she suddenly jumped onto his chest, bit his neck and dug her fingernails deep into his flesh. Now, Jack was in the dilemma, to defend himself and to not hurt Miko. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her body back, so that she was on the ground again. To give her a little space, he stepped back.

Rafael closed his eyes, because everyone except for Jack had foreseen what came now. Miko came running at him, but instead of jumping on to him, she pushed him down the stairs and slid down the banister. It didn't sound good as he slid down the stairs on his back. Arcee wanted to get to Jack but he already stood back up and started chasing the now fleeing little girl, blood running down his shirt.

Ratchet was the first one to follow, when Miko started heading out of the base, closely followed by Jack. Then came Bumblebee with Raf and Optimus. Arcee and Bulkhead, both startled by the sudden incident, were the last to follow. Arcee caught up rather quickly and took Jack whilst he was running. He had a good condition for a human though. But Miko definitely had a better one. Ratchet wasn't able to catch up with her over the dusty ground. So Arcee tried, but had to make a harsh braking immediately, because Miko had come to a halt, too. Everyone drove to her and they made a semicircle around her, because she stood directly in front of a cliff.

"Miko," Jack got off of his guardian. Apparently, he just realized now that his throat was bleeding where she had bitten him. He carefully laid a hand on it and looked at it appraisingly, then murmured something like _'Nasty little Vampire.' _and returned his gaze to Miko. She stood so close to the rim, that her heel touched the nothingness beneath her.

Then it was Optimus' turn to raise his hands. Not over his head, but on the height of his spark.

"Miko, we do not intend in harming you. Please, let us explain..." but it was already too late. The Prime's mistake had been his single step forward. With a graceful jump, she threw herself over the rim and raced down with the head in front. Jack wouldn't have followed her, if he had known that the canyon under her was filled with water. But Arcee did not seem to know that and before he jumped, he heard her panicked 'no'. The boy rolled his eyes within the jump. She was so overprotective.

Rafael glanced down the rim and shivered. He'd never jump down there. Not for a billion dollars. Was it even possible for Miko to survive that, when she got into the water with her head first? Bumblebee kneeled down next to him and beeped worried.

_Are they going to be okay?_

"I don't know, 'Bee. But I doubt Jack would have followed Miko if he wasn't sure he could handle the height."

"And Miko wouldn't have jumped down without thinking about it, would she?" Arcee added with pursed lips.

Ratchet glanced down the rim thoughtfully, "That would have been suicide."

Bulkhead tippled around nervously, "And? Do we want to just stand here and do nothing? They could drown!"

Last but not least, Optimus gave his word, "That outcome, however, is rather unlikely. Though I would suggest following them to make sure Miko stays safe would be..."

Arcee came up to him, "Miko? And what about Jack?"

Bumblebee rolled his optics, _Oh come on. Jack is Jack. He can handle that._

Everyone had to smirk when Arcee's response was a low growl. She hated being corrected in things about safety. But in the end, all of them followed the canyon. It was a bit difficult to get to the water, because it was trapped inside the massive walls of rock, but when the Autobots were sure that no human was in visibility, they climbed down to where the water cut a rock filled area. Raf had to sit on Bumblebee's shoulder while he tried not to fall down.

All in all, it took some time for the bots to get onto ground again, but there was no track from either Jack or Miko anywhere to be found.

_Okay, where do we search?_

Optimus stood straight, his gaze wandered around the area.

"What the... aaah! What'd I do?"

"There," Raf answered while stating the obvious. Steps were heard. Running. Jack appeared on the ground as he maneuvered himself through a small crevice. Stones fell down from one of the higher rocks, directly above Jack. He hadn't noticed us yet. His eyes were locked onto Miko on top of the highest rocks. Her hair seemed to be already dry, or dryer than Jack's, though Jack's was much shorter. His clothes were entirely wet and his hair fell into his face with weird locks. Arcee thought his hair looked much better, this way. She knew she wasn't the only one who disliked Jack's straight hair.

"Miko?" That was Bulkhead. "What has gotten into you?"

Her eyes immediately flew to him and she gave him a threatening hiss, showing her white teeth.

"Thaaaat doesn't sound like Miko," Raf commented anxious.

"Probably because it isn't her," Jack answered in the same hissing tone as Miko.

Raf realized red lacerations on his older friends cheek, which went down his neck, probably even further down his back. Ratchet noticed them too, but didn't want to scan the boy in front of Arcee. She would probably freak out when she'd see them. That was why Jack provocatively positioned himself so, that Arcee faced the less injured side of his body. Though he still had scratches all over it.

"And who else would it be?" Bulkhead growled back. Bulkhead had never been mean or harsh to any of the children. Ratchet thought he overreacted, but Optimus didn't even seem to notice any of it. He stared at Miko; it was as if he tried to hypnotize her until he suddenly started to whisper to her in a firm tone.

Raf had never heard such a language before. Jack recognized it from one of the Insecticons on Cybertron. But for Rafael, it didn't even sound like a language. It was a mixture of clicking noises, growls and hisses, but sounded totally different at the same time. It was obvious that this wasn't a language spoken on Earth. He highly doubted that it was even possible for any organic creature to talk like this. Until Miko answered.

She didn't answer mean or harsh, neither did she answer firm like Optimus. It was more inquiring. The Autobots stared at them in shock, awe and surprise, while the two humans just watched them completely puzzled, confused and without understanding a word.

Finally, Optimus spoke English again, apparently wanting the humans to understand the conversation.

"Who are you?"

Miko titled slightly her head to the side and said with her high, clear voice that somehow wasn't hers at all, "I am you. I am they. I am everything and nothing. I am knowledge and wisdom. I am future, present and past."

Then Arcee interrupted her with an astonished yelp, "The Allspark!"

Miko's always so vivacious face was now cold and serious, "Yes, your kind does call me that."

Bulkhead's jaw fell down and he couldn't figure out how to close it again. Since when was his little friend the most powerful thing ever known?

"Where am I?" asked the fragile little person, sitting on a rock that was over ten times higher than she.

"We are on Earth. A planet, lightyears away from Cybertron and the core."

Ratchet was the only one that immediately understood what was going on when Optimus had said 'core'. _Primus, let me be wrong! ,_he prayed for a second and stared her in the eyes, searching for proof.

"The species, whose body you inhabit, is human. Just like they are," Optimus made a gesture to present her Jack and Rafael.

Miko watched Jack with interested eyes. He froze, didn't dare moving a single muscle under her gaze. Why did he behave like this? That was Miko, for Primus sake! But Rafael behaved the same. None of them recognized Miko in that frame on the rock. When she jumped down gracefully and got closer interested, he could see the coldness in her eyes. This wasn't the heavy metal loving, E-guitar playing, bad behaving girl from Tokyo. This was someone they had never met before.

But the saddest thing was Bulkhead wouldn't see that. The big bot grinned all over his face and couldn't get his gaze of his charge. He had worried so much about her within the last days that his joy was so big to see her alive and well, that he got blinded by it. The former Wrecker believed that he wouldn't have survived, losing her. If he hadn't killed himself, Wheeljack would've done it. His old comrade liked the little girl almost as much as Bulkhead did.

Jack didn't dare to breathe when the thing in front of him -yes, for Jack, this was neither Miko, nor a human- stretched out its hand and stroke over his cheek. Drove along the red lacerations. The skin tingled where Miko had touched it. It almost felt like electricity coming out of her fingertips.

Raf stepped back but froze again, when Miko's gaze met his and the boy felt like being hunted by her. Every inch of his body wanted to run away, or at least hide behind one of the bots, but he couldn't move under her eyes which followed every movement he made. Jack stared at him, being in the same situation as the boy, but Rafael suddenly noticed, that the part of the cheek, Miko had touched, was completely healed.

"Ratchet, I believe we need a GroundBridge," Optimus said to his medical officer next to him as if nothing had happened, but deep inside, the Prime heavily worried about the girl's future.

* * *

_So this was it! Maaaaaany thanks to Challenger2011 for having so much patience with me and Betareading this story!_

_Please don't hesitate to R&R!_

_ I wish y'all some snow and hot chocolate with grandma's cookies! At least that's how I'm gonna spend my advent;)_


	2. enemies and allies

_Hey guys! This story turned out better than I thought. _

Alright second week, second chapter. This one's a bit longer than the last, but I hope you don't mind that. :D

Anyways, have fun reading!

* * *

The Allspark Needs a Body

Part 2 Enemies and Allies

_Jack's POV_

"I suggest she's not staying here over night," I announced. I was pretty certain that the others would be on my side, but the more certain I had been, the more surprised I was, when no one agreed with me.

"And what makes you suggest something like that?" Bulkhead replied harshly, making Rafael wince. "Here's best medical assistance, best protection and..." the big bot's voice echoed through the whole base.

Rafael stepped back.

"I-i actually agree with Jack," he stated shyly. To the pity of the young boy, every gaze laid on him now. None of the gazes were nice. "I mean... it's not like you couldn't..."

He backed away a bit more, obviously feeling like a potential target for the big robots. But I knew that they would never ever try to harm Rafael. They didn't even blame him if something bad happened. They always blamed Miko or me. Especially me, because I was the oldest and I couldn't make one on innocent little girl like Miko could. The bots saw me as the responsible one of us, so they didn't feel that bad, when they punished me. At least, I never said anything against it. It somehow felt good, being the highest one in the Autobot's eyes, especially in Optimus'.

"Let's just say, you're not sufficiently equipped for taking care of a human," I tore Raf out of his misery, for what I earned a thankful smile. Ratchet frowned and Bulkhead and Arcee scowled at me. Bumblebee looked confused. He was now standing protectively next to Raf, his statement already forgotten.

"What do you mean with that?" Bulkhead hissed. I really didn't want to mess with him, but on the other side, I didn't want to let Miko's body here with the bots.

"For example, you guys don't even have a bathroom."

Fortunately, I wouldn't have to explain that to them too. Optimus nodded silently, his gaze laid on Miko, who was sleeping on the couch and if I hadn't seen her earlier, I would have thought, she's still the same annoying, spiders-hating, way-too-loud guitar playing, but somehow cute, little girl she'd always been. But I had seen her, and this was definitely not her. Though as much as I disliked the thought, taking this thing that took Miko from us back home with me, a really small part of my head told me, Miko would kill me if I left her here.

"Do you need more reasons?"

Already taking Miko into my arms, I raised an eyebrow at them. Of course they didn't need more. And even if they asked for more, I could have told them hundreds of things.

Arcee wanted to transform, but Bulkhead was already there and I appreciated that. It would have been hard to ride with Miko anyways. After all, she wasn't awake and I doubted that the thing that had taken over her brain, knew how to drive a motorcycle, or at least hold onto one.

I maneuvered Miko onto Bulkhead's passenger seat and went on the driver's seat myself. The seat belts looped around her and tightened. I did that for myself and sighed lightly. I hoped I hadn't just made a new enemy.

(-)

The only problem had been to explain my mother the day after it, why there was Miko, sleeping in my bed. Of course, I had been sleeping on the couch that night, but it had been an awkward situation anyway. Mostly, because I could see a red and blue peterbilt truck on the opposite of the road.

When mom had finally let go of me, I had gone into my room to wake Miko, to let her get ready, but the thing was, she wasn't in my bed anymore.

"Miko?" I shouted. No matter whether this thing had another name, it was still the body of Miko!

"Bathroom!" she shouted back. I nearly fell to the ground, but quickly got back up and speed into said room.

There she stood, doing her hair while watching me with pursed lips.

"You do know that, whatever was going on yesterday, will never ever be repeated," I reached forward and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Uh, Jack? What the hell is wrong with you?!" she hissed while trying to free herself from my hug.

"You don't remember?" I then asked her stunned, releasing her from it.

She shook her head and frowned, "Should I?"

Taking her by the hand, I pulled her down the stairs, though my hair was still uncombed, messy and even a bit curly. I led her through the living room and out of the house. Mom was already gone to work, but not without noticing that Optimus stood before the house. I sometimes really wondered what she thought about the Autobot commander.

The truck opened both doors and just wanted to greet us with his deep formal voice, when I burst out, "She can remember!"

"I am sorry?" Optimus replied confused.

The engine started while he drove off towards the base.

"Yeah, that's the thing! I don't understand Jack either! Because I do _not _remember any of what happened!" Miko replied annoyed, but at least, Optimus now saw that she _did _remember.

"Miko!" he said loudly.

"Yes!" she replied loudly, still not getting what Optimus and I were so glad about.

"You remember who you are!" I stated.

Miko froze and raised an eyebrow, "Erm, yes?"

The drive to the base was much shorter than usual. Or it probably just felt so, because I was so happy to have Miko back. But when we arrived, to my surprise Bulkhead wasn't the first one to look out for Miko. It was Ratchet. Which kind of scared me a bit.

"Jack, how is she?" The medic didn't even waste a look at me; he walked straight down to Miko. Optimus kneeled down beside her.

"Erm, guys? What is wrong with you all?"

Ratchet joined him and Optimus replied, "She can't remember any of the events yesterday, but she apparently is herself again."

Miko clenched her hand to a fist and hammered it on Optimus' foot, "Hellooo? I can answer for myself!"

Ratchet held his arm a few feet above her head and scanned her body.

"DUDE! What is going on?!"

With a click, the scan was completed and Ratchet frowned, "Indeed, she seems to remember but I am not quite sure whether..."

Miko looked scandalized from one to another and then shouted, "HEEEY! Would ANYONE of you listen to ME?!" Ratchet just kept on talking and Optimus nodded absorbed in his thoughts.

Miko shook her head and mumbled something on Japanese as she made her way over to the couch.

"MIKO! What do you think are you doing?" Ratchet blocked the stairs with his hand as Miko started to walk them up. She turned around irritated and hissed, "What I want! Don't tell me what to do! You don't even listen to me, because I have no clue what the slag is going on in here! And where is Bulkhead?!" With surprised optics, Ratchet watched her attempt in doing a death-glare and I had to admit, it was a pretty good one. She must have practiced.

Raf and I sat on the couch and watched the scene with high interest. It was much better than the other stuff which currently was on TV.

Ratchet scooped her up on his palm while he answered, "Bulkhead is out scouting for energon. He will be back soon."

Raf and I turned around on the couch and followed Ratchet with our eyes as he carried her to the med bay. She crossed her arms over her chest as he sat her down on the berth and flew some scans over her. Miko was obviously annoyed. Annoyed, pissed, and about to kill Ratchet. A pity my handy had no camera.

* * *

_**Bulkhead's POV**_

No energon here. Either the gauge was scrap or there just wasn't anything around! Annoyed, I tapped with my finger on the screen. It was probably just malfunctioning.

**::Bulkhead to base. There isn't even a tiny fragment of energon out here!::-Bulkhead**

No answer.

**::Hello? Base? Ratchet, do you copy?::-Bulkhead**

**::...Bulkhead?::-Ratchet**

**::There's no tiny piece of energon out here, Ratch'!::-Bulkhead**

Ratchet didn't answer. Instead, the GroundBridge opened in front of me. I groaned and trotted through. I awaited an explanation, but would certainly not get one. Ratchet mostly answered my questions with either a counter question or with a command. As a Wrecker, I hated that, but as a member of Team Prime, I had learned to life with it.

"Bulk? Can you tell me what's going on in here? They all keep on acting weird..."

Miko.

My head whirled around as I searched for my little girl and my spark jumped up a thousand meters high as I saw her standing behind the railing. Her hair was still open, but tamed and lustrous. The pink streak made its way over her forehead and her big green eyes stared at me with this innocent, juvenile expression I loved so much about her. Her small hands with those tiny fingers were clenched around the metal as she leaned forward towards me.

"Miko!" I heard my heavy steps echoing through the whole base as I hurried towards her. Before the railing I came to a stand and cupped my hands so that she could get in. As she was placed on my shoulder she already started to ask.

"What's wrong with Doc bot? And why can't I remember what happened yesterday? And why's big guy so tense? What's wrong with you all, anyway?"

I froze, "What do you mean you can't remember? Ratchet, why can't she remember?!"

"Easy Bulkhead, the Allspark apparently plugged in to her brain and overwrote her thoughts, so that it took over her current mind. Now, she appears to be perfectly..."

"That thing did _WHAT?_" Miko's eyes were torn open and she stared at the medic in horror and disbelief. "_What do you mean with that_?"

Her voice reached a level that was deafening. Jack scowled and apparently was tempted to cover his ears. Rafael did cover his ears.

"Miko calm down. It's not occupying your mind at the moment. So..." Ratchet tried to reassure her. Not that he expected any success.

"That thing is still _inside MY HEAD_?!" If I hadn't been out of metal, but out of flesh, Miko would've probably drilled her nails through my shoulder joint. Optimus turned away from the screen and came towards us, obviously wanting to check on the horrified Miko. With time I thought my post as a guardian was going to have many rivals. I didn't like that at all, not even if I knew that Miko was best protected like that.

"It is no _'thing'_, the Allspark's wisdom and knowledge has just become a part of your mind, not much more threatening than a simple thought, that's all," Arcee tried to explain but Miko just looked at her with a confused and pretty irritated expression.

"She wants to tell you, it's like if you, _if _you'd one day read a book, you'd gain some knowledge and that would stay inside your mind. The Allspark simply made you.. smarter in some kind of way, I guess," Jack added, earning a scowl from Miko for his statement, but she had to confess, it reassure her a little.

"But why can't I remember anything of what happened yesterday?"

Ratchet rubbed his chin with the right hand while his left was occupied with bringing a previous scan of her onto the screen.

"I assume that was most likely a side effect of the fast irruption when the Allspark got literally transferred into you," he stated and Miko had to think about that sentence for a second.

"So... is there more inside me than the actual 'wisdom', like the whole... Allspark power source...thingy?" she replied dumbfounded.

Jack rolled his eyes to the ceiling and folded his hands, acting as if he was sending a quick pray up, how Miko had explained Bulkhead once.

"I believe not," Optimus answered calmly; obviously ignoring the young boy he normally treated as an adult, compared to how he treated Raf and Miko. "See, you're totally fine!"

I looked down at my charge and there was this expression on her face again. She looked as if she was looking into a completely different time. Staring at Ratchet and yet not...

"Miko?" I asked in an attempt on getting her attention. She quickly shook her head and smiled up at me.

"Yes?"

I only raised an optic ridge and Ratchet did the same.

"Erm, nothing. Oh hey, Ratchet there was no energon signal where you sent me! Your scanners must be malfunctioning; there wasn't even the tiniest bit!" I then complained, trying to change the subject. Miko didn't seem to notice, though.

Ratchet watched me for a second and I prayed he wasn't as stupid as I'd probably be. Fortunately, he saw that it would be more than appropriate to change the subject. The scan of Miko disappeared and the energon signal returned on the screen.

"I highly doubt that my scanners are malfunctioning, but yours may be. Should I send Arcee?"

I shook my head.

"Naah, I can go again, Miko'd do good to get something else on her mind than the whole Allspark stuff," I answered, glancing at the little girl who had this gaze again...

"But we've got nothing else to do anyways, do we Jack?," Arcee then asked, not even thinking about the possibility that I would want to be alone with Miko.

"Nope!" the boy replied and hopped off the couch. Ratchet didn't even waste another glance at them and started the GroundBridge, but Prime sent me a message through the comm link.

**::Keep her safe, Bulkhead.::-Optimus Prime**

I simply gave him a nod and made my way into the bridge, Miko still having that look in her eyes...

* * *

**Third POV**

In a green, silent area somewhere in Japan, a blue glowing tunnel appeared out of nowhere and spat out four figures, two of them from a world far, far away, its hope lost eons ago. The two metal creatures were accompanied by natives, who apparently saw no problem with them invading their planet. After all, they couldn't know how many of their race may one day come to find this planet as their home too.

One of the natives had a great smile coming across its face as it perceived its surroundings and recognized the familiar air, the unique flora and her heartbeat became rapid as it realized it was at the one place in the world, it could call its home. She said it out loud and they all started looking around now, more carefully, aware of what this place meant for the little creature.

They were merely doing what they were supposed to and by being so distracted, they did not notice the one watching them. Watching them, though he had no eyes. Hearing them, though he had no ears. Smelling them, though he had no nose. Feeling the slightest bit of heat radiating from the natives bodies, though he had no skin. He wasn't noticed let alone seen, though his tall body was not hiding. He was merely a shadow, not in the slightest bit cowed, though he was clearly outnumbered. He could take them all on, could beat the strong one, many times wider than him, to death, though his limbs seemed so fragile and twisted.

Only the smallest of them seemed to have a vague hunch that there was something wrong with this place, but he didn't mind. It didn't matter how she felt, as long as she was here, soon to be in his grasp.

–

"So, Bulkhead was right. I don't see any energon around either," Arcee stated. Jack looked up to Miko and the girl showed her guardian to let her down, who did so, though much more gentle and careful than actually needed.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, the young human made her way towards her black haired friend.

"So, this is where you come from?" he asked, less curious than she would have wanted him to ask.

"Not exactly, of course, but the country's right. Yeah," she replied, picking up a small flower which had been growing under one of the 'small' trees. She turned it around in her hand and looked at it with a smile, the slight pulling in her heart nearly gone. Miko had indeed missed her home, though she knew she'd miss the Autobots just as bad. Even Ratchet.

Jack watched her curiously as she closed her eyes and smelled at it. He noticed the peace that came upon the normally so mischievous face, but it disappeared as soon as she noticed him staring at her. She raised a brow, so that Jack turned around on his heel and didn't dare facing the winning grin on the girl's face.

**::Ratchet? Bulkhead's right. There's no energon out here.:: -Arcee**

–

On the other continent, in the hidden military base deep in the desert, the medic received the comm link on the screen. It did not make any sense to him, not at all. His scanners were still showing a clear and strong Energon signal. If they would have been malfunctioning, the signal wouldn't have appeared at all or not that strong and steady. The medic frowned and tried to find the fault in his readings, but there appeared to be none. Suddenly, the Prime's battle mask shot protectively around his face.

"Ratchet, open the GroundBridge," he stated gravely and his voice echoed through the whole base.

"Optimus, what...?" the medic started, still not understanding what this meant.

"It is a trap."

–

Miko tried to suppress the bad feeling in her stomach, but couldn't keep herself from looking around. She tried to stay as close to Bulkhead as possible, but didn't want to ask him to pick her up. She didn't want to appear weak.

Her mind started to imagine persons in the shadows and she got goose bumps as the wind let the leaves move in an eery kind of way.

"So, what are we doing here any longer if there's no Energon around?" she asked, though afterwards it sounded weird because this was more like her home after all. Fortunately, they didn't seem to notice.

"Ratchet apparently asked himself that too," Jack stated and pointed to the GroundBridge that suddenly appeared a few meters behind them. The small group turned around and made its way over to the blue glowing tunnel, as suddenly the Prime left it, battle mask up, weapons sharpened.

"All into the GroundBridge. Now!" he commanded, but before they could make their way over to him, one of the shadows separated itself from the trees and Soundwave came into sight. All Autobots immediately onlined their weapons.

Soundwave just stood there, next to the GroundBridge, blocking their way. He didn't do anything except for watching them. Following every single muscle movement. The Autobots didn't dare to attack, in an attempt to protect their charges. Optimus and Bulkhead positioned themselves in front of Arcee, Miko and Jack. Arcee didn't bother. She was used to them shielding her.

Suddenly, Soundwave lunged forward, broke through the barricade Optimus and Bulkhead had formed and dodged their shots, while ignoring Arcee and grabbing Miko. All that in such a graceful movement, that one could have thought, he had planned that for his whole life and hadn't simply improvised. Then, he threw the girl into the air, transformed and let her fall into his cockpit, seat belts tightening around her immediately.

Bulkhead and Arcee stopped their shooting, but Optimus kept going, following them for as long as he could, always aiming for the wings. Miko saw it and shouted out to him, while she struggled in Soundwave's grasp and tried to get rid of the seat belts. Her hands reached into her pocket and she dialed the emergency number of the Autobot base. If no one hung up, they might be able to track her signal.

Meanwhile, Arcee, Bulkhead, Jack and Optimus were already back at base, yelling at each other. Bulkhead at Arcee, Arcee at Bulkhead and Jack, Jack at them both. But as Optimus started yelling at Ratchet, they all went silent. They had received the call and been desperately trying to track her signal, without Soundwave noticing, but without any success. Miko's shouts had been heard in the background as she had tried to free herself.

The girl maneuvered her hands out, tore at the seat belts, started biting them until she tasted blood in her mouth and as she realized it wouldn't do anything harmful to the Con, she grabbed the joystick and took over to make it a jerky flight. They spun around and her cellphone fell out of her pocket, but there was no way, she could catch it while her body was still tied to the seat. By the way, the seat belts were getting tighter and tighter, making it hard to breath. Darn, she'd have so many bruises tomorrow. _If _there even was a tomorrow for her! With time she started to doubt that the big guy was able to safe her. They'd already have done something, wouldn't they?

Soundwave had his problems in regaining the control, but then did a harsh nosedive while spinning around several times, though the spinning came more likely from the girl, so that Miko hit her head at the control panels and fell unconscious. Finally, the fleshy hands let go of Soundwave's control and he could open a GroundBridge.

The girl's body sunk lower in the seat as the seat belts loosened. Soundwave transformed right in front of Knock Out, who stood directly before the GroundBridge portal.

"Lord Megatron needs the human in its best conditions," he said with a sarcastic smile, which showed how much he disliked helping the vermin. Soundwave did not nod, or reply in any form, he simply stretched out his clawed hand and presented Knock Out the unconscious creature. "Unconscious doesn't really hit the meaning of best conditions flawlessly... but I believe we're not quite on the same level which relates to Lord Megatron's commands, are we?"

The Decepticon medic then stretched out his servos, so that Soundwave could let the pitiful creature fall onto it. Knock out sincerely hoped that the human's bones were still intact, otherwise he'd have a big problem. A quick scan over the fragile creature told him, that he first had to download something about human medicine before attempting to the humans 'injuries'. Unfortunately, it didn't help him in anyway, so he decided to simply wait until the humans consciousness would return, because there weren't any serious injuries which wouldn't be healing within a few earth days or weeks.

But the female wouldn't wake up. Another one of Knock Out's scans showed that her brainwave activity was like... double as high as it should be? It was like there were two minds in the girls head, fighting each other till total termination, regarding the fact that her body could only be inhabited by one mind without any permanent damage, like insanity...

'How many minds does Megatron have in his head then?' the Decepticon medic asked himself with a smirk.

He had to lock the base so that no Insecticons found her. Someone must have had a party mouth. They had found out that the human who had extinguished Hardshell was here. Now, they wanted revenge, of course. Unfortunately, Lord Megatron's orders were for Knock Out to prevent her from any harm, so he stood in their way. And his finish. Thus, she better woke up soon, because Knock Out was not in the mood for more scratches on his finish this week.

"Knock Out. Open the door!" Starscream's voice hollered through the walls and Knock Out knew he had to, though he closed it as fast behind him as possible, locking it again.

"What do I owe the honor, _Starscream_?"

The second in command scowled at him.

"Lord Megatron needs the human. Is it online again?"

"No."

"Then I believe you will get it online right now."

"No."

"What?" The second in command's face was only inches away from Knock Out's, his claws dangerously close to his finish. The Decepticon's medic backed away slightly out of fear his finish might be endangered.

"She is organic, so I cannot do anything to wake her without harming her in any way. We must wait until she awakes all by herself," he replied as if it was the most obvious thing. The seeker growled and stepped next to the examination table with the small creature lying on it.

"Lord Megatron wants the vermin. Now!" He stretched out his hands and Knock Out knew he was not aware of what he was about to hurt, but the medic knew, he couldn't let that happen. No matter the finish, it was too important. He grabbed his superiors arm and pushed him back, facing him with such a determined expression, that the seeker didn't know what to reply.

"_You _might want to tell our Lord that he should get some more patience, because I will _not _interfere with her systems," the Decepticon medic bravely stated, well knowing that Soundwave might be hearing them, but he knew as good as Soundwave did, that Lord Megatron could have plenty of patience. He had waited millennia to have the chance of conquering another planet as inhabited as Cybertron, after all. But did he have enough patience to wait for the body that withheld the Allspark, to wake up? Knock Out knew that he would punish everyone in his own, brutal way who dared to even touch her without his exact permission. Knock Out had this permission, but he didn't have the permission to let his superior touch her and, as odd as that sounded, the Allspark was much more important to him, than his finish.

"Very well. Make sure our precious Lord gets to see the vermin as soon as it awakens."

Then, obviously attempting to keep what was left of his pride, the flyer left the room with big, graceful steps, leaving the Decepticon medic alone with the young female.

–

"She is _WHERE?_"

Agent Fowler's voice could get impressively loud. Rafael had to admit that he was shrinking more and more, though Fowler was mainly shouting at the Autobots. Arcee looked about to join the argument and Bumblebee hid himself halfway behind Ratchet. Bulkhead was standing right before the human and was yelling back at him, though he didn't sound half as impressive as he should have, regarding his size. Not even Optimus stopped them, until he saw Rafael raising his hands in an attempt to protect his ears. He knew humans had sensitive hearing and he also knew that screaming around wouldn't get the little girl out of the Decepticon base.

"_Enough!_"

Agent Fowler raised his gaze and scowled at the Prime.

"Optimus is right. This isn't really helping," Jack stated, but got stared down by Fowler for that.

"Then I believe you have a better idea? We lost Miko's signal completely and have no way of tracking the Con's warship down!" Arcee shouted at him, putting her hands on her hips. With time, even Bumblebee started to question the relationship between Arcee and Jack. They simply... argued too much.

_How about Wheeljack? He said he found some energon mines. Can't we track the Con's signals there?, _the young scout questioned and the Autobots looked at him for a second.

"Yes, that might work... If Wheeljack wasn't out of our communication range!" The poor scout shrunk at the medic's words and looked pretty similar to his small human friend as he did so.

"Then... there is no other option than to wait," Optimus replied and though the Prime was trying hard, he couldn't hide the grave sadness in his eyes. Bulkhead took a step back from Agent Fowler, gaze attached to the ground. He'd be crying if he could, but he was a robot, he couldn't cry. He was a warrior, he shouldn't cry.

Even Ratchet was grieving for the human female, not for the loss of the Allspark. He was truly mourning about the loss of Miko. Arcee, Agent Fowler and Jack knew what he thought. Miko would never come back. Now that the Decepticons knew of her being the keeper of the Allspark, she'd be gone forever.

–

The creature lying on the table looked different. Different to everything he had ever seen before. It was so much tinier than his master. Even tinier than himself. He would easily be able to grab her body with his claws, but he didn't. The creature's armor looked weak. Just as weak as the one of a sparkling shortly after birth.

He knew he couldn't touch it, though her armor made him want to. He wanted to feel whether it felt as cold and hard as his, or whether it was slippery like the armor of the creatures on 'Regulon 4'.

Suddenly, the door below him opened and the red Decepticon medic entered, alerted. The scanner on his arm was beeping rapidly.

"Laserbeak, report to Lord Megatron that she is waking up!" the robot commanded and he did not hesitate to shoot out of the room, towards his one and only Master.

Soundwave held still, so that the metal bird might transform and attach back to his chest armor. As it did so, the communications chief received the message and made his way towards to command center. Lord Megatron would be waiting there, patiently, expectant. And yes. He stood there, his back turned to Soundwave, servos crossed behind it.

"Ah, Soundwave. What message do you bring me?"

The big bot stepped closer, his lanky body moved too graceful to be real. But Soundwave was an enigma. One, which not even the dark Lord himself could decipher.

"_...report to Lord Megatron that she is waking up!"_

It was Knock Out's voice that escaped from the faceless creature. No, he did not speak. Never had anyone heard his voice. Well, at least no one who was still alive.

The dark Lord's optics widened slightly.

"Starscream! Bring her to me!", he whispered without looking at his second in command. Starscream knew this expression all too well. As did Soundwave and the rest of the Decepticons. There was no mistake allowed right now, or their Master would blast them all to bits.

Quickly, Starscream stepped forward and walked past Soundwave, giving the robot a glance out of his canthi before disappearing. The second in command had given up trying to read his expressions a long time ago. He was how a Decepticon was supposed to be. Mercilessly, showing no fear, pleasure or anything else. Sometimes, Starscream thought, he did this all too well. Acted all too well. Sometimes, he even thought Soundwave was a simple drone, created by Megatron himself, to show them, how they were supposed to act. But then again, it would make no sense to create a Decepticon who might be a better one than oneself. So why would Megatron have done it?

Starscream knew too, that Soundwave would be a better second in command than him. A better Lord than him. Probably even a better Lord than Megatron, what might be the reason why he'd always stay communications chief. The Decepticon's could be happy that Soundwave was so loyal to his current master. If he was like Starscream, could he have terminated Lord Megatron then?

The sound of his feet colliding with the ships metal floor echoed from the walls and a troop of drones passed him, without bowing. They'd learn. With time, even they would.

He approached the lab and the door in front of him hissed open, "Knock Out! Is she finally up?"

The red Decepticon was nowhere to be seen. But the small girl, he remembered her from the 'empty' Energon mine a few earth months ago, was lying on the table. Her eyes were open and a frown was on her face, but she did not seem to fear. _Miko_, he thought. Yes, that was her name. But he did not intend in showing the human girl he still recognized her after so long. She was a vermin, too unimportant.

He walked around the table, catching her attention and grinned in a dangerous manner. She tilted her head to the side, her eyes still not showing the least of fear.

"Scientist Starscream," she said with a voice that was too solemn for her small figure, not to mention it didn't fit her appearance in the mine at all. And it had also been a while since someone had called him scientist. Millions of years actually. Before the war started, he had been an Autobot scientist, but how could she know. Not even Optimus Prime was aware of that!

"It is Lieutenant Starscream to you!" he shouted at her, overwhelmed of someone other than Megatron, Soundwave and Jetfire being aware of that. Her expression still didn't change, though her eyes showed something like hurt. He stared down at her for another second, then stretched out his clawed hand and grabbed her roughly.

"Lord Megatron wants to see you and you will obey, vermin!" Starscream commanded, not receiving an answer.

Her small frame felt warm in his hand and he could hear her steady heartbeat. It shouldn't be steady. It should be pounding from fear. She should be squirming in his claws in an attempt to free herself. She should be screaming up at him to let her down and that her pathetic Autobot friend would come to her rescue, but she didn't. She just laid there. Limp. Watching his face, still with this plane expression on hers, mixed with the slight tint of hurt in her eyes.

The door to the command center opened and Starscream stepped in. He threw the human onto the ground before Megatron, disappointed as he didn't hear any bones crack. But he heard how the girl's lunges shoved out all the air at the impact and grinned as he saw her crawling on her knees, holding what appeared to be the part of her body where her rips were.

"_STARSCREAM!_" the dark Lord suddenly hollered through the large room. The silver armored Decepticon stepped forward with graceful steps and kneeled down. "This is the Allspark!" he whispered and stretched out his clawed hand, offering the creature a finger to steady herself. The girl looks up and green colored eyes met red ones. Her tiny hand grabbed his finger thankfully and she manages to stand up.

"Megatronus."

The small robe that had tied her hair together in the energon mines when Starscream had last seen her was gone and the long black fur fell over her shoulders as if it was liquid.

"... I am being called..."

"Lord Megatron. I am aware of that, leader of the Decepticons. Conqueror of Regulon 4 and mentor of Orion Pax."

There was no taunt in her voice. No anger or disappointment. She was the Allspark, so she knew how many had died from his hand. How many had died under his command. How many would die in future. She, the creator of all sentient beings, should hate him for sending so many of them into the darkness with all his unscrupulous commands. She didn't judge him for the sins he had done in past. He was her creation too, after all. But he was Megatron. Nothing was forbidden from him.

"The title is unnecessary, precious Allspark, strongest of the strong, creator of Primus and Unicron."

Starscream's optics grew word per word. It was the Allspark. Not a human, _the Allspark_! He had shouted at it, had thrown it to the ground like a worthless vermin! By the pits of Kaon, he _had _called it a vermin!

The second in command sunk to his knees, behind the creature and let his gaze fall to the ground. She saw him. He could feel her eyes on him. But she did not say anything. He could hear Megatron's growl as he noticed the Allspark's attention was on him. "How dare you...!"

Starscream looked up to see that the Allspark had laid a hand on the Decepticon leaders arm to calm the big Transformer and now came towards him, lying a hand on his too. His spark slowed down, as if all desperation, fear and rage were sucked out. His shoulders lifted, freed from a heavy weight and he looked at her, still seeing this hurt expression in her face.

"I pardon you, Scientist Starscream, for the sins you committed in your past," she said and her hand fell to her side. Her eyes didn't look like the ones of a human. They didn't look like the ones of a Transformer. They looked by far too intelligent for any species he had ever seen. The wisdom this body withheld was not just any wisdom. It was everything.

–

**::Wheeljack, do you copy?!::-Ratchet**

**::Wheeljack, please come in.::-Bumblebee**

**::Jackie, where for Primus sake are you?!::-Bulkhead**

**::Wheeljack please respond.::-Optimus Prime**

Arcee had given up trying to reach the Autobot hours ago. He wouldn't respond anyway. He was simply too far away, somewhere out there with his ship, flying over the land and scouting for energon mines, while Miko was trapped inside the Decepticon base.

"What do you think are they doing to her?" Raf suddenly asked from behind, his eyes wide and slightly red. He had apparently cried for the girl that had become another sister to him.

Everyone's gaze became soft and Ratchet answered, "We do not know, Rafael, but I highly doubt that Megatron will hurt her. She withholds the wisdom of the Allspark after all."

Rafael nodded and his gaze dropped to the ground again. Jack leaned against the wall and massaged the ridge of his nose.

"That doesn't make sense," he stated. "Why would the Cons want the Allspark? I mean, the Allspark itself, sure, why not, but Miko? They do not possess the means of holding a human on the warship for longer than a few days. And come on guys, we know that Miko wouldn't tell them anything. By the way, she doesn't even remember, let alone understand what had been going on with her the day the Allspark got transferred into her body. So why don't leave her here with us until we know more about it, probably get this Allspark stuff out of her, and then take it? Wouldn't that make much more sense?"

Ratchet frowned, just like Arcee and Optimus. Bumblebee still looked at Rafael, apparently not listening and Bulkhead was still trying to reach Wheeljack, though it was obvious that he was listening to every word said about Miko.

"Though you may be right Jack, I highly doubt that Megatron played this on risk. Either he plans on transferring the Allspark into something else by ..."

"By what?" Bulkhead looked up at him, shocked optics that didn't want to believe what was just told.

"The only way to get the Allspark out of her body would be... killing her," Optimus stated hollow.

"Never!"

"Don't worry, Bulkhead. He won't do that. As we saw a few days ago, the Allspark appears to be some sort of... sentient being. If Megatron would kill her, I highly doubt this thing would do for him what he wants. Right?"

Optimus nodded, "Megatron may be insane, but he is everything but naïve. He must have a plan... or he knows more about the Allspark than we do."

–

Twelve. Twelve Drones accompanied the little creature. Those twelve Drones were positioned in front of the Allspark's quarters. They were to hold their guard no matter what came. At any sight of danger, no matter whether they were sure or not, all Decepticons had to be alerted immediately. The door to her room should remain open as long as she did not explicitly wish for it to be closed by a Drone.

Knock Out had gotten the Allspark clothes, to cover her, now human, body. Though she hadn't asked for it, the Drones had closed the door while she had put on a light white dress, falling down to her ankles. She did not wear any shoes. Apparently, she didn't wish for them.

The Decepticon leader had ordered to leave her alone. She was allowed to go wherever she wanted, but the guards would follow her. She was allowed to talk to other Decepticons, as long as they didn't perturb her. It appeared that she did not talk much from her own. She did not seem to be bothered when someone else started talking to her. She was always polite and, as odd as it appears, the Decepticons showed themselves from their best side. They all, especially Soundwave and Dreadwing, were honest and decent as gentlemen. As she returned to her quarters to rest, they wished her a pleasant recharge and she returned that wish. She knew, if Optimus hadn't taken his place as a Prime, they would all be noble and honest, not even wasting a thought at a war which would never have started, but Optimus had been destined to be a Prime. Megatron had been destined to be an opponent. And all those lives had been destined to depart. But not for nothing!

"Lord Megatron!"

The dark Lord hissed as he heard the voice of a Drone crash through his audio sensors that deep in the night. Most of the crew was in their quarters, except for the Drones who were taking guard and him. He was still standing in the command center, as always, staring out the screen, as always, thinking about the past, the present and the future, as always. His arms were crossed behind his back and he tensed as he controlled the urge to blast the drone to bits. Those unrewarding, mindless pieces of scrap metal!

"What is it?!"

Harshly, he turned around, grimacing within his rage, his eyes burning red. The Drones stepped back, cowards! Stepping right behind the Allspark. Unworthy fools!

The expression on the Decepticon Lord's face was wiped away and, accompanied by everyone else, he bowed, "My highness."

Her big, green eyes watched him with such a grace and truth, that he couldn't let go of her gaze. How long had he waited, had he desired deep within his spark, to find her? Millennia. Eons. Longer. Much, much longer.

"Megatronus," she said with this clear, high voice like a gentle impact of metal on metal. Hearing this name felt right to him, though he had lost the sense of right and wrong a long time ago. The last one calling him Megatronus had been Orion Pax. He had used this name only because he had not known another one. The Allspark knew many names for him, and yet it had chosen this one. Megatronus. Why?

"I fear that I may have to ask for a favor of yours," she said, her eyes still met mine. I saw the aversion in them. The Allspark did not like asking for favors. Normally it was the one granting them.

"What is it that you wish for, precious Allspark?"

She came closer, and Megatron noticed her bare feet on the cold metal. He noticed the way she walked, so much more gracefully than the humans did he had seen until now, so much more deliberate. And yet she looked as if she felt like a stranger in this body, that hadn't been created by her. She knew it, she knew it well. Just as she knew any other creature in the universe, but creatures she didn't create were strangers to her. Hard to control. Hard to conduct.

"I have to get to the core."

Then, sadness appeared in her eyes. He did not know why or how, but as a tear rolled down her cheek and she caught it with the tip of her finger, surprised, because creatures she had created couldn't cry, Megatron saw she was right.

"But my highness, that would mean your destruction!" Starscream stated. As a scientist he knew what it meant if the Allspark wished to see the core. How odd. When had he approached? Megatron hadn't heard him.

She lifted her head and gave the second in command a gracious smile.

"It would save the lives of many more than you yet dare to expect, Scientist Starscream."

Megatron rose, a serious expression on his face. He knew what he had to do, to bring the Allspark to Cybertron. To revive his planet. But the war was neither won nor lost. He could fight for her, keep her, but in the end, she would win. The Allspark always won.

"My highness, how long might you sojourn upon this planet, if I may ask?"

She heard the repugnance in his voice and walked back over to him. His body was tall. Twenty, probably more times taller than hers. Caused by his nurture, the heavily armored Cybertronian kneeled down again. She shouldn't have to look up to him. He was inferior and admitted it without the least bit of shame. The Allspark was superior to everything.

"We will have to depart as soon as possible, Megatronus. I have to do it. To revive your planet for this planet's sake!"

–

"I'm sorry, Bulk. They are not doing anything at the moment! The Cons are like wiped off the planet! The energon mines are completely unguarded. I haven't seen a Con for days! I normally beat down thirty per hour!" Wheeljack exclaimed, trying to calm down his comrade, but joking didn't work for Bulkhead these days.

He banged a fist on the metal wall and let out a growl before turning to Wheeljack and slamming him against the wall, "This is none of your silly games, WHEELJACK! This is about _MIKO_!"

His hand clenched around Wheeljack's throat and the other wrecker wouldn't even have a chance if Bulkhead hadn't been his best friend. He was just too strong. It took Bumblebee, Ratchet, _and _Optimus to get him away from Wheeljack.

"Bulkhead! Calm down!" Ratchet exclaimed as he had seen the shocked expression on Raf's face. Arcee was standing before him, covering him from the Bots. Jack was at work and wouldn't be coming until tomorrow. Optimus hadn't worried that the Decepticons might take him, but he still wanted Raf in his optic range.

A crack was heard as Optimus forced Bulkhead's arms on his back and pressed him down on his knees.

"We _will _get Miko back, Bulkhead!" he hissed under the force he needed to keep the big Bot on the ground, but it wasn't only that what made him hiss. He was still trying to convince himself that the little girl was going to be alright. No matter how often Miko had said, she was capable of taking care of herself, he still felt the urge to protect her. Just like any other Bot did.

"How do you know?" Bulkhead replied with a growl, still trying to get to Wheeljack, who was now rubbing his throat. Optimus tore him back once more, so forceful, that it would have torn out the servos of a Drone, but Bulkhead was way too strong for that. He let his head fall forward to show his defeat and Optimus let go of him.

"Because we will not stop searching until we find her!"

–

"Soundwave. Is the spacebridge prepared?"

A nod.

"Are the troops ready to depart?"

Another nod.

"Is it locked onto the core?"

A head shaking. Then, he showed that the coordinates were missing.

"What?! Why do we not possess the coordinates? Haven't I ordered to...?"

Soundwave listened to the roars of his master. As he stopped in the middle of his sentence, he played the recording of some of the Drones.

"_Where are we supposed to get the coordinates from? No one's ever been near the core!"_

"_Yeah! Except for that fragging Prime!"_

Another growl escaped Megatron's throat as he turned away from Soundwave.

"Then, I believe I have no other option then to ally myself with my beloved brother yet again."

His optics went darker and his face was too serious. Normally, the Decepticon Lord laughed at the irony of those situations, a laugh full of his pure insanity, but this time he stayed serious. Serious and deadly silent. That was no good sign.

–

"Optimus! Megatron. He is trying to contact us!" Ratchet's face would have been pale if he was a human. The disbelief in his eyes rapidly yielded for a spark of hope.

The Prime nodded, showing Ratchet that he should go on. A button was pushed and everything fell silent. There was no static in the background, nothing was heard, though Megatron apparently was on the other side of the line.

"Megatron," Optimus said, and then fell silent again, until a laugh came through the speakers. This was him. The rough insanity of the Prime's brother seemed to fill the room and let the air crackle, so high was the tautness.

"Brother! Greetings. I believe you and your _companions _have passed some hard days, haven't you?"

Bulkhead growled and Megatron laughed once more. Yes. This was him.

"I have called to make an offer. But therefor we would have to meet optic to optic."

Silence.

"Of course you will not abandon your little pet. Soundwave will send you the coordinates."

Then he hung up. No one moved. No one breathed. No one blinked. It was as if the world stood still. Then, Bulkhead whispered, "Miko." and turned his head towards Optimus. Arcee, Rafael and Bumblebee did the same. Only Optimus and Ratchet kept staring at the screen. And staring and staring. They didn't move. What was with them?

"O-Optimus?" Rafael then asked hesitantly. His big eyes stared up at him with this innocent and anxious expression in them.

June had been right. They were children. They weren't supposed to be fearing anything; to be worrying about their lives. They had taken them their chance for a real childhood. All Optimus was able to do, was... what? What could he do? Send them away, as Ratchet had wanted him from the beginning on to do? No. Not now. Not ever.

Optimus then stepped forward, watching the blinking coordinates Soundwave had sent them.

"Ratchet, open the GroundBridge. Autobots, prepare to roll out."

–

The Autobots left the GroundBridge and found themselves standing inside a large canyon. The stone had the color of rust and was wet from the rain that softly dropped down on them. No Decepticons in sight.

Bulkhead watched how dark points appeared on the dusty ground every time another raindrop hit it. _Miko would love that, _he thought. _Miko loves rain. She missed it badly when she was in Jasper..._

"Megatron!" Optimus suddenly stated and made the Autobots aware of the silver colossus standing no hundred meters away from them. He was alone and, as always when he came towards them, unarmed. Well, except for the plasma cannon on his arm. He walked slowly, with every step sending a wave of raindrops off his reflecting armor. He did neither laugh nor did he smile. His face was as serious as it had never been before.

"Optimus."

Then, his army followed. It indeed was an army. The whole Decepticon crew probably. Soundwave, Starscream, Knock Out, Dreadwing and following them, separated into three different groups were Flyers, Vehicons and Insecticons. They looked like hundreds or thousands.

As if on cue, all five of the Autobots sharpened their weapons and fell into battle position, though it was sure that they would never survive an attack like this one. It was a miracle that they had survived so long, if Megatron had always held such an army behind the walls of his warship.

Then, a small creature stepped into sight from inside the army. They had apparently been forming some sort of shield for her. Miko wore a light, white dress, but no shoes. Her hair fell over her shoulders without any bands to tame it. The pink streaks stuck out so that it was practically impossible not to notice her.

She came to a halt right next to Megatron, looking tiny but somehow strong beside the colossus.

"We are here to propose a truce. We need you as our ally, Autobots!" he said and his voice had the wished effect. It echoed from the stone walls in the canyon and sounded stronger, than it ever did before. The Allspark did not seem to notice. Of course not, it wouldn't care who was stronger. It didn't pick sides.

"Why, Megatron?" Unfortunately, the Prime's voice sounded even as strong.

"Because we all are servants destined to bring the Allspark to the core."

Optimus then started walking forward, showing the Autobots to stay and his movements mirrored with Megatron's. This was one of the infrequent moments, when it was obvious that Megatron and Optimus, Megatronus and Orion Pax, had and would always be nothing more and nothing less than brothers.

As they had arrived in the middle of the field, their backup far behind them, Optimus sensed the uncommon tension. Normally, the air wouldn't feel so thick shortly before the battle begun. Did his brother this time really intend in a truce?

"The Allspark wishes to be accompanied on its journey to the core," Megatron stated with the serious and firm tone of Megatronus, back when he had been like a mentor to Orion.

"I would be willing to do this on my own. Unfortunately, I do not possess the coordinates. But you do, Optimus. And I believe we might fight this war further, when Cybertron is revived."

"And what if I refuse in handing you the coordinates?"

"Then, you may explain that to our precious Allspark," Megatron turned around, looking at the small creature standing there in front of his army as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "There is no way leading around an ally, Optimus. I need you to show us the way and you need me to provide the protection and transportation of the Allspark."

Optimus looked at him, watched him, and thought. Megatron was right. If this was the will of the Allspark, then there was no way around. He nodded.

"I will make my decision Megatron. But until then, the Allspark will come with us!"

"That is not my decision to make, Optimus. Soundwave!"

The communications chief came towards them, slowly, staying next to the girl. Guarding her. It took them long to arrive. Longer then Optimus and Megatron, but as she stood there, next to Megatron and Soundwave, she smiled up at Optimus.

"My highness, you may depart with the Prime until our journey begins," Megatron said. The Allspark nodded and stepped forward.

"I await your answer, Prime."

Then, Megatron turned around, transformed and left the canyon, followed by his army.

**::Ratchet, I need a GroundBridge.::-Optimus Prime**

* * *

_Hmmm... could actually finish every chapter with this sentence..._**  
**

_What do you guys think? What do you thinkS going to happen next? We still have two chapters you know? ;)_

_Hope you guys liked it and please don't hesitate to R&R ;)_

_'Joyeux Noël', 'Merry Christmas' and 'Frohe Weihnachten'! :D_


	3. Dark Lords and dark Leaders

_So hey guyzzz!_**  
**

_Finally, the third chapter. Pheww, I gotta tell ya it was hard to write! Hope you don't notice while reading..._

_Now you can finally see what's gonna come next..._

_So go on! What are you waiting for._

_Stop reading the description and read the story already!_

_What did I just tell you? Now hurry!_

* * *

**The AllSpark Needs a Body**

**Part 3**

**Dark Lords and Dark Leaders**

_**Third POV, Autobot base**_

Optimus was standing in a corner and watched the girl who was waiting patiently for Ratchet to finish his scans on her. She was so much calmer then the last time the concerned medic had scanned her, almost as if she already knew what was about to come. Absolutely nothing, those were the results which would be seen over and over and over. It was barbaric; regarding how much it hurt Bulkhead didn't help either.

Optimus still couldn't believe that this was happening. That Miko was the AllSpark, which she no doubt was. But still... It did not seem right. Why would the AllSpark steal the life of such a defenseless and young creature? What had it done to her?

He and Ratchet had a presentiment. The way the girl was acting, wasn't the way Miko normally acted. She wasn't as graceful and polite as the creature lying on the berth next to the former CMO. The Japanese girl had never been like that and would hardly ever be. Thus, it could not be Miko. The being that had attacked Jack could not have been Miko either, well at least not completely. As Ratchet had already mentioned, the AllSpark must have tried to take over her mind, but did not succeed completely as it was behaving too wild when it had attacked Jack. Miko must have put on a rather fierce fight. But now?

With a loud click, Ratchet's scan completed and he turned himself towards the big screens covering the walls of the med-bay. The girl still watched him patiently, hands folded on her lap, back straight as he had never seen it before with any of the children. She made such a reputable impression.

"Optimus, can we talk. From optic to optic?" he then asked, turning around and facing the Autobot leader. His face looked all of a sudden exhausted and tired, as if he was much older than he actually used to be. Something was horribly wrong and Optimus did not want to know what it was, but did he ever have a choice?

The Prime nodded, "Of course, my old friend."

"Arcee? Would you bother watching Miko?" They still disliked leaving her alone; anxious she might change her mind and flee once more. As they both walked deeper into the base, Arcee went to Miko's side and smiled reassuringly down at her.

"Ratchet, what is it?" Optimus asked, though he was sure that he actually didn't want to know.

"We have been right."

Bulkhead came out from behind, "Right with what?"

The medic sighed, "As Miko attacked Jack, the AllSpark was still fighting her mind. She wasn't really present then, those were more likely her instincts attacking Jack and running away. So she had actually been a mindless creature at that time. A wild animal simply trying to defend itself."

_Yes. But now? What's now? _Bumblebee asked, turning around a corner. Everyone looked at Ratchet with a mixture of expectancy and anxiety.

"The AllSpark has... completely taken over her mind.," Ratchet whispered, his gaze falling to the ground taking a part of his body with it. It looked as if he was carrying a heavy burden and the Prime knew that it was his always present guilty feeling about not being able to do anything against the evil in this perpetual war. Optimus' battle mask shot forward just as it always did when he had problems controlling his emotions.

"What does that mean, Ratchet?" Bulkhead asked with wide eyes and a shocked expression on his face. It was hard to see the Wrecker like this when he normally never looked weak. But now, the best way to describe him would be saying he looked like a child who found his dog, his best friend, lying on the road, dying. Hit by a Peterbilt truck.

"The AllSpark finally conquered her mind. Miko doesn't exist anymore."

Bulkhead stared at him with disbelief. Optimus sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Bulkhead..."

"NO!" he shouted, stepping away from the others. "Not Miko! You made a mistake! You researched wrong! You made a mistake! It can't be! Not Miko!"

Bumblebee stepped aside as Bulkhead transformed and sped towards the exit. Or towards the medical bay?

_Is that true, Ratchet? Is she never going to be herself again, _Bumblebee asked with big, sad eyes. _I mean, Bulk once lost his memories too, didn't he? Miko got him to wake up again! Probably the same works for her and then everything's gonna be alright again!_

Optimus shook his head, "I fear not Bumblebee, I am sorry. But even if it could work, we would have to get the AllSpark out of her body and the only way to do so would be... killing Miko."

"I tried everything, scanned her on all frequencies and strengths but if her mind was still working, I would have gotten a signature, even if it was only a faint signal. But since I couldn't find anything..."

Bumblebee nodded and it felt good as Optimus laid a comforting hand on the young scouts shoulder.

_Optimus?_

"Yes, Bumblebee?"

_Do you believe there exists something like the Well, like a 'heaven' for humans?_

"No Bumblebee, I do not. But I fairly hope that I am wrong."

–

"Master?"

Starscream already watched the Decepticon's Lord pace through the command center for hours, for there was nothing else to do than to wait for the Autobots to call. He knew the energy resources of his master were low at the moment and he also knew that he hadn't recharged for some time. But Megatron did not even consider listening to Knock Out, when said medic held his lectures of how bad it was to not recharge or refuel for so long. He even threatened to blast him if he'd start about the effects of armor stability.

Anxious, Starscream listened to his master mumbling something in a strange Cybertronian dialect. He knew it. The language of the Primes. Very few knew it, let alone speak or read it. Only the highest ranked Decepticons had the ability to do so and that limited. They could not understand everything, unlike Lord Megatron who had learned the language from Cybertron's leaders themselves. Just like Optimus Prime had.

Starscream only understood few of what he mumbled. Single words and sentence fragments. _AllSpark... get to the core... destroy... punish the Prime... unworthy... aliens... conquer this planet... back to golden age..._

"Master?" he repeated. The second in command did not like the insane tone in his master's voice at all. Indeed, Megatron had always been insane and dictatorial, but this was getting unusual.

The dark Lord looked up and Starscream saw his red eyes glowing like fire. "What is it?" he whispered deadly and Starscream bowed, laughing out of fear as he took a step back. By now, he was sure his master had lost his mind completely. "I do not believe your systems can take the extreme withdrawal of Energon for such a long period of time, master."

_I just had to provoke this, didn't I?, _Starscream thought to himself as he got slapped against the wall by Megatron and felt his whole body shiver, caused by the vibration of the colossus' heavy and yet graceful steps. Starscream had to confess, he'd always admired his masters ability of moving and behaving graceful in even the oddest situations. What would he give for such a gift?

"Do you question my sanity, STARSCREAM?"

Oh how he hated hearing his name screamed out by his so called master. One day, they'd switch places and Starscream would be the one to scream down at Megatron. To slap him against walls, punish him and torture him with simple, throwaway remarked threats.

"Lord Megatron?" one of the drones called out hesitantly.

_Hmmm...They aren't as useless as they used to be, are they? _the second in command thought as Megatron let go off him, distracted by the drone.

"A message from the Prime, my liege. He wants to meet. Alone."

Starscream's gaze followed his master and he did not dare to move, let alone stand up as Megatron took a few firm steps towards the screen. "Did he send coordinates?" he whispered and Starscream's eyes widened. "You do not plan on going alone, do you master?"

"I do whatever I desire, Starscream."

And with these words, the Decepticon Lord left the command center and headed towards the GroundBridge control room.

Starscream quickly got up and stumbled after him. "But master. Master!"

He caught up with the Decepticon Lord, hurrying to keep on his level though his master's steps were too big for him. He crouched down while walking, fiddling with his hands, optics big and anxious. Yet again, Starscream was proud of himself as he saw his reflection in Megatron's armor. He was just as good as he'd always been, deceptively real. But his master barely took any notice.

"Lock on to Prime's coordinates!" he growled and the drones bowed, obviously afraid of the consequences for a mistake.

"I will depart alone Starscream and you will not be disobeying my orders. The ship stays on course and no command of yours will be obeyed until I have given the permission to do so!" then he transformed and sped off through the GroundBridge, leaving his traitorous second in command behind.

–

Optimus was waiting on the same field as Megatron had handed Miko over to them. He didn't need to wait for long until his brother finally approached though. The GroundBridge opened to his right and the Cybertronian jet exited it while transforming with such a grace, which Starscream wouldn't even possess in a decade of training. Optimus had to confess, he had always been a little jealous on his brother. Since he could remember, Megatron had been the one who had to work hard for his success while Optimus had always gotten everything without even asking for it. In the end, he respected his brother. Megatron had come far without the help of anyone. He had started as a miner and had become a gladiator. Then taken over the name of one of the original thirteen, shortened it and had become Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. Optimus had simply gotten forced into his title and his position. Of course his training had been hard, but not in the least as hard as everything Megatron had gone through. It was difficult to understand, but Optimus sometimes wished Megatron had become leader. Who knew if it would have ended this bad? On the contrary to Optimus, Megatron had worked hard to get what he wanted. In the end, Cybertron would probably have survived. With Optimus as its leader, it hadn't.

"Megatron."

"Optimus! I believe you have made a decision?"

Megatron stepped closer without even the slightest tension in his body. His polished, silver armor reflected the blue light of Optimus optics and reminded him yet again to keep his head up. Primes didn't show any emotions. Never.

"Why is it so very important to you that she reaches the core?" the Prime asked firmly, his optics following every single movement of his brother's body, preparing to defend himself if needed. After millennia of fighting, Optimus had lost the patience to trust the warlord.

"Do you not wish for our planet to be revived?"

"I will not put my wishes over the well-being of the girl!"

"So you rate the well-being of one tiny little human higher than the survival of an entire race? Our race?!"

"She is _innocent_!"

Optimus surprised himself with losing the control and yelling at his brother. Apparently he had surprised Megatron too, but the Decepticon Lord quickly caught himself again. His face was serious, no sign of derision or taunt to be found.

"You will never find a creature more innocent than this little girl."

Was Optimus being deceived or was that truly sadness in Megatron's optics?

"Why would you mind, Megatron?" he whispered, returning the sadness. Megatron appeared to be indeed affected by the outcome of the AllSpark's arriving on earth.

"Do you think I don't care for it? This may be our only chance to revive Cybertron, but sacrifice what has brought us into being? Is it worth sacrificing her only to give us a new chance? Optimus, do you really believe I would not rather keep the AllSpark at my side than to let her make such a grave mistake? Hasn't it been you lately who had said that we cannot let others die for our mistakes? I give you right in this very point; I cannot destroy the creature who has brought this universe to life because of us having been so foolish. Raising Unicron, destroying Cybertron and Primus, that all would be nothing against such an act of cruelty. I do not mind for this planet and the vermin crawling upon it, but I mind for the one being which not even Unicron the chaos bringer would dare to harm!"

"Then why do you let her go that easily?" Optimus didn't feel right saying those things. He didn't feel like Optimus Prime talking to his opponent, he felt like Orion Pax talking to his mentor, though it highly bothered him that Megatron did not seem to even waste a thought at Miko. On the other side, had he expected anything else?

"Because I respect her decision, though I have tried to convince her of it being the wrong one."

How long had it been ago that he had talked like this? Without any mistrust or hate in his words? Even if it would have been the only opportunity to save this planet, Optimus doubted that he would ever be able to harm the Cybertronian standing right in front of him at this very moment. He reminded him too much of his old brother. The one whom he could trust with anything lying heavily on his spark. Not the one who had let himself become distorted by all the hate and anger.

"Have you made a decision, Optimus?" he then asked expectant, his gaze turned cold again and his body straightened as he noticed the upcoming warmth in his brothers optics.

"We will depart at the fall of the next solar cycle. My team will accompany us and we will maintain a truce until the _human _is safe again! Send us the coordinates to your Spacebridge and we will come."

Megatron nodded. He nearly felt sorry for his brother's naivety, but in the end, the time they had been brothers was long ago. Now, they were opponents in need of a truce, in the calm before a storm.

The GroundBridge opened and Megatron watched Optimus disappear through it. His battle mask had been hiding his face the whole time, but Megatron could not be fooled by him. The great Prime was in the middle of a battle between the option to destroy the only chance of survival they had, or to sacrifice one puny, little human girl who had nestled down deep inside his spark. Megatron had to laugh at this. Yes, that was typically Optimus. Always found himself attracted by the wrong side, the weak side and as the stubborn martyr he was, he would be staying on that path if he had once decided to do so.

–

Arcee watched Optimus carefully as he stepped through the GroundBridge and walked over to the berth where Miko was placed on. Her head laid on Rafael's backpack and her body was curled up to a ball. Ratchet was still in front of the screens and regarding her scans. Arcee knew that he was grimly searching for another possibility to separate Miko's mind from the AllSpark, or at least for a way to get _Miko _to respond again, not the long lost relic. For even if Ratchet was able to get the AllSpark out of her body, there was still the problem to get Miko back to consciousness and Arcee believed that that was the biggest one.

"So, what are ya goin' ta do about this, Prime?" Wheeljack demanded while he stepped into view from behind the corner of the medical bay. Poor Wrecker. He liked her nearly as much as Bulkhead did and there was no second that none of the two was watching her. One of them always stood guard and it fortunately didn't seem to bother her.

"We will bring her to the core, through Megatron's Spacebridge and accompanied by him and his army."

Wheeljack nodded, though he wasn't exactly thrilled by the plan. He stepped closer to the small creature on the berth and asked monotonously, "When?"

"At tomorrow's fall. Every one of us will be coming," the Prime stated and Ratchet turned around confused.

"Everyone?"

"Yes, you too, old friend. Jack and Rafael will be handling GroundBridge duty until we return."

Ratchet frowned. If Optimus wanted every one of them to accompany him, then there would most likely be a fight. For what? The AllSpark? Miko? Cybertron? And that was not the only problem he noticed.

"Is Agent Fowler to be informed?" Arcee suddenly asked, having the same thought in mind.

"No. Not until it is over."

"But Miko is human! She won't be able to breath our atmosphere without being equipped like Jack was when he traveled to Cybertron!" Ratchet exclaimed, giving his leader an utterly shocked glance.

"Hey Doc, what do ya think will this Fowler guy do if he finds out we're gettin a little girl to Cybertron so that she can sacrifice herself? Ya think he'll cheer us on, or d'ya think he'll set his pentagon friends on us?" Wheeljack snapped at the medic with a highly sarcastic tone in his voice.

Bulkhead suddenly stepped in, apparently woken up by a comm. link from Wheeljack. "You're planning to do what?" he asked, obviously oblivious of what was going on.

"You're beloved commander plans ta send our lil' girl to the Well an' throw the AllSpark after."

Bulkhead's head jerked into the Prime's direction, "You wanna do _what_?"

"Bulkhead, there is no other option. If the AllSpark wishes to..." he started, but got interrupted by Bulkhead stepping so close to him, that the Prime had to back away slightly in order to avoid a fight.

"The _AllSpark_? What about _Miko_?! Is Miko worth nothing to you anymore? Is she so easily to be replaced simply because Ratchet finds her annoying or because she hasn't always followed your orders perfectly like Jack or Raf have? Will you betray her that fast, Prime? I joined Team Prime because I thought it fought for what's right like the Wreckers did, but now?! I'm sorry Optimus. At this point I cannot obey. Miko is our friend, our ally and if that is worth nothing to you, so be it. But I will not abandon her! Wreckers never go down without a fight!"

As if to strengthen his former partner's words, Wheeljack stepped in front of Miko, shielded her sleeping, defenseless frame from everyone in the room and crossed his arms determinedly over his chest.

"Bulkhead, you know we would never intend in anything bad for our human friends. Believe me, I would never have made such a grave decision if there had been any other option, but we cannot oppose the AllSpark's will!"

"And who knows, maybe Miko is going to be herself again and the AllSpark doesn't even plan to sacrifice her. Why would it anyway? There is no point in killing a life form only to remain another one which means neither more or less to her."

Bulkhead stared at Ratchet with a mixture of disgust and hate. Arcee and Bumblebee didn't even seem to fully understand what was going on. And Wheeljack didn't even flinch as Optimus set eyes on him with such a look of suppressed distress that would have brought everyone else into guilty feelings. Everyone else, but not a Wrecker.

"Bulkhead do you not see that this is not Miko, whom you are protecting right now from a danger which never existed? The AllSpark lying there on the berth has nothing to do with Miko except for having inhabited her body. Understand that this will be our only opportunity to regain Miko. The _real_ Miko. Otherwise, there would always be nothing more and nothing less than the AllSpark trapped in this human frame, but Miko? Do you see another option? Another way to bring her back?"

Bulkhead groaned exhausted. The former Wrecker slowly turned around and made his way over to Miko's berth, but instead of sitting down next to her, like he usually did, he scooped her up carefully and transformed so that her sleeping frame lay on his passenger seat.

"I doubt sleeping on metal does anything good to her back," he muttered and drove off to his quarters. No one replied anything. Not even Wheeljack. Bulkhead needed a friend right now and no matter whether she was mentally there or not, her simple presence made him feel better.

–

Bumblebee transformed and strolled towards the main screen. Raf followed him automatically and Jack had canceled his shifts at KO Burgers so that he could help out. June would be coming in the late evening and they would all stay at the base until _'it'_ was over. It was still hard to give the mission a name, when they already knew that it would most likely end with another sacrifice of Team Prime's members. Optimus and Ratchet still tried to decide whether or not to contact Agent Fowler, but they still just couldn't get to a solution.

"Erm guys? I'm kind of having a pretty bad déjà-vu right now..." Rafael suddenly stated, already placed in front of the main screens. And before they could turn around, the sirens already turned on.

"_PRIME!_"

"Well, just the person we needed," Jack sighed.

The doors to the lift whirred open and a special agent stepped out, expression as pissed as never before.

"I thought you killed this giant evil Lord off?!"

Optimus turned around, hiding his irritation pretty good.

"To whom do you refer, Agent Fowler?" he asked with only a hint of annoyance in his voice Miko would certainly have laughed about.

"The planet sized bucket-head who nearly sent me into a loony bin and tried to wipe out each and every sentient being currently inhabiting mother earth!"

Jack frowned, giving Raf a questioning glance.

"That's what I was talking about! Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms, hurricanes everything we had back then. It's like we never set him back to stasis!" the 12 year old exclaimed, showing reports and images on the main screen where everyone could see them.

"So you think th'old Lord of chaos' still alive down there? Not in stasis anymore?" Wheeljack demanded, coming into the room, closely followed by Bulkhead and the little girl who did not seem to bother being with them. She looked up at agent Fowler and greeted him and the others politely, making her way up to the couch where she sat down and watched the others with adequate interest.

Just then, another alarm went off.

"Optimus! The Nemesis is trying to contact us on all frequencies! Shall I respond?"

Optimus nodded and if it wasn't enough, Megatron started talking right ahead.

"Unicron must have detected her life-signal. I suggest we postpone the mission to right now if you still wish for us to get her to Cybertron in one piece, Prime. Soundwave will send coordinates." And then he hung up.

Everything was silent and Raf watched with slight horror how Agent Fowler's face went pale with rage. His hands clenched to fists and his lips were pressed together to form a firm line. Jack took a step back and Arcee watched him with concern. The AllSpark frowned, didn't understand what was going on. With a loud sigh, Agent Fowler let the air out of his body and slowly shook his head in disbelief.

"When exactly did you plan on telling me that you are about to send an underage girl from our planet to another planet without any gear or permission?" he whispered, his voice dripping with hate.

"After it was over, because he knew you would never give him permission," Jack stated, trying to look as if he wasn't impressed or afraid of the special agent, but the set up hairs on his neck told Arcee the truth.

"Why?"

"Because her return is unlikely, but there is no other option if we want to have Miko back. The _real_ Miko."

"You know that I'm gonna have to inform the pentagon about that and that they will hunt down Team Prime till the end for deliberately sending a little girl into her doom, don't you?" he replied monotonously, his cold gaze following each of the Prime's movements.

"Very well, Agent Fowler. So be it, but the girl will be coming with us and you will not be able to do anything against it. Ratchet! Open up the GroundBridge!" Optimus ordered and Wheeljack grimaced as he saw Bulkhead stiffly walk over to the girl and offer her his hand. He also saw how Bulkhead's spark broke as the girl abdicated and strode gracefully down the stairs towards the Prime. The Wreckers gaze could not be misleading; the deep sadness within them was contagious.

Raf also noticed it and frowned unhappy, "We'll stay put in case you need a Bridge or something."

"Except for Mr. Darby whom I could get to jail for what he's doing," Fowler replied threateningly, but got interrupted as the ground started shaking and the lights fluttered from on to off and on again.

"Earthquake!" Rafael uttered and grabbed the railing in an attempt to steady himself. Optimus simply ignored Agent Fowler's statement and the kids. He knew very well that Fowler wouldn't blame the boy for what had happened.

"Autobots, roll out!"

They all transformed and Miko got, to Bulkhead's grief, onto Optimus' passenger seat.

–

The rain seemed to come down in waterfalls, would never cease, and never stop. It dripped down the Decepticon's armors and blurred their visions. It was impossible to see further than a few clicks, yet the whole Decepticon army stood there in all its discipline and might. Lightning shattered down onto the ground, into the high stone columns, lightening the darkness of the very day.

In the distance, the hum of a GroundBridge was heard and then, six vehicles coming towards them. Megatron showed his footmen to keep in position.

Optimus Prime transformed, holding a hand protectively over the frame in his other one and setting the girl in it on the ground, one hand still over her, shielding her frame from the rain. Megatron kneeled down as he saw the small creature in the white dress standing there. She indeed appeared to be a goddess. A polite smile came upon her face as she noticed Megatron and his followers.

She stepped forward and as she left the protection of the Prime, the rain receded. Slowly, but obvious. The clouds however stayed, shielded the present ones from the sunlight.

"Megatronus," she whispered as a greeting and stopped in the middle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. The fine hair on her arms made it visible that she was freezing and her feet were all wet and muddy from the imbued ground. Her eyes were locked onto the army and Arcee observed the tension in her muscles. There was something about to come. Something horrible.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. Not like an earthquake, but more like a slight shiver as caused by the impact of something big and heavy. But as everyone turned around, there hadn't been an impact. No, it was more like a giant statue of a transformer, only that it moved.

"Unicron," Optimus whispered and his battle mask shot forward in the ludicrousness of the situation.

Megatron stepped closer to the girl, releasing his blade as he turned to the huge reproduction of the chaos bringer. Without any hesitation Optimus stepped next to him, charging his canons.

"Soundwave, make sure our passenger stays safe," he ordered in a calm, nearly bored tone, neither showing his soldiers, nor his new won allies the intensive threat in their enemy. Soundwave stepped over to the AllSpark and transformed, leaving the cockpit open so that she could step in.

Bulkhead grimaced at the sight of that, but instead of shooting at Soundwave, he started shooting at Unicron's clone and the Decepticon's army followed his example, shielding the communication's chief as he tried to evacuate the AllSpark.

Starscream lead the Flyers and caused the destruction of the colossus in a rather quick time, but as his remains grew to become hundreds of smaller versions, still much bigger than usual transformer, the second in command had to split up his armada and thus sacrificed one Flyer after another. Though they flew with skill and grace and their attack would have brought death to a whole army, they couldn't take them on. Not if there were coming more and more of them and they had to watch how the foot soldiers died in such cruel ways.

The Autobots had taken on the remaining seven giants, but were hardly fighting than rather dodging their attacks. Megatron on the other side was terminating one after another out of the air, but never failed to keep an eye on his communication's chief who tried to get through the battlefield without shooting.

–

The shots came fast, from everywhere and it was hard to decide where was up and where down as Soundwave spun around the air in an attempt to dodge them. Shooting wasn't a good idea. He would only become a bigger target to Unicron's footmen and he had to keep the AllSpark as safe as possible. Unfortunately, on a planet full of rock, Unicron could trace them anywhere, thus evacuation was not an option.

But in all his attempts in trying to keep the AllSpark out of danger, he did not notice what the spinning did to her. Her fingers were clenched around the seat as Soundwave made a nosedive and spun around once more. With an uneasy expression on her face, she held her eyes shut, just like her mouth. Was he malfunctioning or was there really read liquid running down her lips?

"Soundwave! No spinning! The AllSpark's well-being is our first priority!"

But as Soundwave obeyed, the AllSpark could watch how they fought Unicron's copies. Saw how Megatronus bitterly and without any mercy tried to obliterate them. He had never lost a fight like this. Not with so many soldiers under his command, but the enemy had never been so strong before either.

"Megatronus," she whispered, aware that he could hear her over Soundwave's comm. link. "Is it really necessary to harm them?" He could hear the distaste and repugnance in her voice. Of course, she saw _him _getting harmed first. She felt his pain, but she would certainly also feel theirs as soon as her shock would start to fade.

"I fear yes, my highness. We have to get you to the core, no matter the cost!" he replied, letting a wrong sense of pity be heard, but he could not fool her. She may have been able to take his sins, but she would never be able to change his soul.

And then, she finally found a reason to the slaughter Megatron was causing. She saw it as the drones fell one by one. Could watch how the Autobots desperately tried to keep it under control and she could see how Bulkhead, the one whom she had stolen a good friend, got smashed onto the ground and didn't stand up again.

"Soundwave, please land," she pressed out silently, suppressing the feelings she held. The AllSpark was not supposed to feel anything like hate or rage. The AllSpark was supposed to be gracious, prudent and mother to all sentient beings out there in any universe.

"_Soundwave, make sure our passenger stays safe!_" her carrier quoted, though his instability was easily to be felt.

"Soundwave, please land. Now. That is an order you cannot disobey!"

In the end, Soundwave landed, though very harshly because of the battle going on beneath them. As she got out, Soundwave shielded her, but only until Megatron arrived with an expression of fury written all over his body.

"Did I not order that she was to be..."

"It was my will, Megatronus!"

He looked at her, not believing, but there was no time as Starscream's last Flyers were at their end and as she saw Ratchet nearly getting killed. With firm, determined steps she walked towards him. The earth trembling with each of her tiny steps, her very first sign of an emotion, a single tear, fell to the ground unable to ever be traced in the mud, and as she was not more than a hundred and fifty meters away from the colossus that was about to give her creation, a part of her energy, a medic who had dedicated his life to those who needed him, the rest, she took her final step and spread her arms.

With an almighty roar, the reproduction of Unicron fell to dust, leaving nothing more than small mounds of rock and sand. Ratchet looked up shocked, just as every other one did. There had been nothing written in the history of the AllSpark which had shown that it possessed such powers! Powers, yes, but never as destructive as those.

"Unicron! Stop this madness and face your fate!" she cried out into the bare nothingness and everyone hurried over to her, as thirteen reproductions, two times as big as the biggest they have had by now, surrounded them. Optimus and Megatron surrounded the Allspark, building the inner shield, the remaining Decepticons and Autobots the outer one. But the Allspark did not seem to even notice.

Then, the unbelievable happened. All thirteen copies of the chaos bringer kneeled down and bowed before her. They tilted their heads to show they were unworthy compared with this delicate and fragile creature in their middle.

"Almighty Allspark," they said in a chorus and the echo reverberated from every possible direction, the dark baritones were sending shivers through their frames.

"Slaughter and violence is no path of life. For thus I am willing to sacrifice myself in order to reanimate Cybertron, our very home. The time of the first has come, Unicron. Accompany me and spare the many lives in whose possession you are."

The world seemed to go silent with those words and everyone waited for a sign to attack or to retreat. Instead, she walked closer to one of the thirteen with no slightest sign of fear or mistrust and showed a Drone to follow her.

"Come soldier, do not fear," she cooed and so the slowly Drone came to her, kneeling down cautiously. She smiled up at him as she placed a hand on his spark chamber and closed her eyes. The Drone didn't flinch or showed any sign of pain, it simply fell offline, it's optics went dim and as she opened her eyes, a red light flashed inside hers.

"What? A mere Drone is not worthy being transferred into the Well! Especially not like this! Not through the Allspark itself!" Starscream spoke up sharply, his optics flashing with fury, his claws clenched to fists.

"Everyone is worth, scientist Starscream," she replied as she placed the other hand on the reproduction of Unicron and it was nearly invisible how the power got transferred from the reproduction into the Drone. It however was not invisible how the Drones body transformed into a small version of the reproductions that, all at once, fell to dust and got carried away by the wind.

"Megatronus, it would be an honor if you could lead us the way," she then replied as if nothing had happened. Megatron grimaced with a look on the smaller version of Unicron who slowly raised and looked around, moving limbs and muscles.

Not even the leaders of both fraction noticed what Bulkhead could see. He knew the expressions and postures of Miko all too well and could tell blindly what they meant. Though this may not have been Miko, this thing was still inside her body and as much Bulkhead hated the thought of it, it was a part of her and him. He was able to tell that this being, whose arrival had doomed his best friend, was afraid of what was about to happen. But since when did the Allspark ever show any emotions like humans did? Like Miko did?

"Knock Out! I need the GroundBridge!"

* * *

_Yes! Another ending like this! _

_Alright, what do you guys think will happen to Miko? Hopefully, you are right, 'cause when the world ends friday, I'm not going to be able to post it, I guess... _

_Anyways, a giantinormous thank ya to Challenger2011! _

_Review, my dear readers, Review! I love y'all this much! *spreads out arms and reaches Cybertron*_


	4. journey to the core

_****Alright, first a giant thanks to Challenger2011 who made it possible that you can read this chapter today, 'cause I kinda messed up pretty bad and had to write the whole thing yesterday and today..._

_That's why it's probably a bit... bumpy to read, but no worries I'm gonna fix that next year when I find some time ;)_

_Right now, I hope you all enjoy the last part of this story._

* * *

_**The AllSpark Needs a Body**_

_**Part 4**_

_**Journey to the Core**_

_Optimus POV_

There it was, in all its glory.

"Cybertron," I whispered to myself quietly.

It felt good as my feet touched the pure metal ground again and the aching pain in my chest nearly disappeared. By the end of the day, it would be gone completely, as the AllSpark would have revived our very home once and for all. And who knew, in a few vorns, maybe it would be like back in the golden age again. Each Autobot shattered across the galaxy could return home to their beloved and maybe... maybe... maybe Elita was there too. As there was nothing else heard of Alpha Trion and his death was, to everyone's dismay, the most plausible reason for his sudden disappearance, I would certainly be the one to reconstruct the relationships of Cybertron's heads and citizens and keep the peace. Something would have to happen before, though. The Decepticons had to be either destroyed or persuaded that the war would bring them nothing more than another destruction of our home planet.

As I turned around, I saw the equal expressions of awe and a hint of hope in my fellow Autobots optics as their feet touched homeland again. Megatron and Unicron did not let any expressions be found on their faces. Did their hate consume the fire that burnt in every single one of our sparks for our home? Our planet?

But as I looked down to Miko, my joy and delight disappeared immediately. I certainly desired to return to this planet. To revive it, but did that not contravene against each and every rule which made the Prime's so dignified.

_**Third POV**_

"We will have to hurry. Humans may be able to breath in Cybertron's atmosphere, but the lack of oxygen will show it's affects after a few joors," Knock Out stated as he let a quick scan brush over the girl. Bulkhead growled and Ratchet protectively stepped forward, shielding her from the Decepticon medic.

"W-wait! We're in Kaon again?" Arcee asked as she saw the statue to her right. The giant copy of Megatron standing right atop the gate. "The entrance to the core isn't in Kaon, is it?"

Optimus shook his head, "No, the entrance to the core is in the center of Protihex."

"Well, we'd have to get through Nova Cronum, Tagan Heights and Crystal City to get there!" Bulkhead exclaimed leaving half of the remaining Decepticon troops looking at Megatron questioningly. The Autobots and Vehicons did not posses the ability of flight, thus they would have to travel on land, which would take much longer.

"Then I suggest you push along, Autobot," Starscream snorted and transformed. His armada followed his example and they flew off to scout the safest and fastest way.

In the end, Unicron was the last one to remain in his robot mode. There was no time for searching an alternative one; therefore he would be making up a vital part of the rearguard along with the Insecticons and Dreadwing.

The AllSpark entered Optimus' driver cabin as they got surrounded by the other Autobots and the remaining Vehicons. Megatron took the lead, had his radars at full capacity. This time, nothing would get into his way. There would be a planet for him to rule.

**::Guys? Did you arrive?::-Rafael**

Arcee swerved a bit and answered before Bumblebee could.

**::Where's Jack? Did Fowler take him?::- Arcee**

**::Nope. I'm alright 'Cee. But are you guys on Cybertron?::-Jack**

The two-wheeler sighed with relief and could see Miko smile slightly inside Optimus driver cabin.

She sat there silently, did nothing except for staring out the window. Her hands were placed in her lap and every once in a while she lifted one up to wipe a streak of black hair out of her vision.

**::We arrived safely, though we still have a long way before us until we get to the core.::-Ratchet**

**::Define long way. A few hours, a day or more than a month?::-special agent W. Fowler**

This time, no one answered. Not because they did not know the answer. Simply because they would not reply to one who was as near the perfidy that he even threatened to arrest one of his own.

**::Hello? Guys? Do you copy?::-Rafael**

**::We are not sure yet, but it will hopefully not take much longer than a few hours.::-Ratchet**

(-)

They had to take a few detours as most of the highways were completely destroyed but finally the Flyers came back in sight and placed themselves lightly in front of Lord Megatron and Optimus Prime, guiding the way.

**::A little change in plans. We may not cross Nova Cronum but take the tunnels towards Uraya. We will cross Iacon and you can travel over the Tri-Torus Loop so that you might reach Protihex in time.::- Starscream**

Arcee drove a little closer to Ratchet, certainly being a bit puzzled. "There are tunnels under Kaon that leads to Uraya? I have never heard of those before."

Then, the seeker made a dive and led them down into a clearly confusing labyrinth of tunnels. Fortunately, he appeared to know where he was flying to. The tunnels weren't big enough for two Flyers next to each other, but they were high enough to allow the Autobot's drive along beneath them.

"These tunnels look by far too intact to me. As if they haven't seen anything of the war..." Bulkhead mumbled as he passed Bumblebee and drove next to Optimus, catching the sight of an obviously pleased AllSpark. But he backed away a little, when she turned to face him.

"That is because the Decepticon's did not intend in showing their direct path to Uraya, and thus also Iacon, to the enemy. They also kept it as a secret from most of their troops, to avoid transmitted knowledge by traitors or spies," she said and Optimus send it over the comm. link to his fellow Autobots, so that they could hear the answer.

**::**_**Starscream apparently knew about them...::-Bumblebee**_

And he was right. The seeker did not hesitate a single nano-klik as he crossed the many different tunnels, turned right and left and headed straight again. His armada followed him without any doubt, just as Megatron did. Was there even another option for the Autobots then to trust them with what they were doing? Megatron could simply lead them into an ambush and take the AllSpark regardless. But wouldn't it know that before then? It would warn them, wouldn't it?

Suddenly, the seeker abruptly came to a halt and transformed. His armada followed his example, though no one really understood why, until they saw the walls.

"Oh no! Not again!" Bulkhead exclaimed as he transformed as well.

"There is only this path leading to Altihex and Uraya. I fear there is no other option left than to cross it. _Cautiously_," the seeker said as he charged his weapons and started walking forward, taking the lead.

Arcee had to admit, he possessed more courage than he had let anyone of them ever see. She hated to believe that he had always been like this, but the two-wheeler knew it. The second in command would never have received his title if he had truly been as craven as he always presented himself to others. This Starscream seemed to have earned his post as a second in command. Now she finally understood why Optimus had wanted him so badly to join their cause in the early days of the war. She did not know what happened back then, but she knew that something had made Starscream choose the Decepticon's sides and that Optimus thought he could have prevented that from happening if he had done something different.

The AllSpark exited the Prime's vehicular form and stepped forward, laying a hand on one of the deep furrows in the tunnel's metal. Her fingers drove along it and she lifted her head to give Megatron a look.

"Alright then. I believe we may have to face some other vermin," he hissed and his sword shot out of his armor.

The AllSpark grimaced and looked up at him as if trying to tell him something, but as the dark Lord didn't look her in the eyes, out of purpose, she decided against speaking up. He knew very well that she was an opponent to every act of cruelty. Just like he knew how his remark referred to the human race.

"Stay close together. They will be splitting up if they see us and we'll have less to destroy," Starscream said and Megatron stepped next to him, taking the lead.

"The sooner we leave these tunnels the better," Knock Out murmured and activated his saw blade.

Optimus laid his hand on the ground and she sat down on it, though with hesitation as she saw the pain in Bulkhead's optics. Of course the AllSpark knew how close the former Wrecker had been to the creature which had provided her this body, but he had to understand that death, even for beings in such a young age, belonged to life. That it was meant to be like this and would forever stay this way. He closed his optics for a second, clenched his hands to fists as he tried to control his emotions. Optimus received a nod from him, to show that he was alright.

The Vehicons made up a shield around the Autobots though mainly to protect the AllSpark. They charged their weapons and all of them started heading forward to Altihex. Ratchet could tell that it was still a few clicks due north and he did not like that thought at all. And he certainly disliked that he was in an unknown area surrounded by Decepticons which he was dependent to. He was a medic for Primus sake and medics knew the tunnels they were heading through. Until now Ratchet had actually thought that he had known each and every tunnel existent on Cybertron. He had been send through so many battlefields and had to learn their possible ways the hard way. But never had he been in one that none of his comrades knew.

Bumblebee flinched slightly as he heard the sharp cracking of metal above him. He kept running along next to Arcee and beeped silently, but his beeping went under in the noise of their feet banging on the metal. Unfortunately, it took only a few breems until the cracking came more often and it got louder and closer.

"I guess we're getting company!" Knock Out exclaimed and imperceptibly hid himself behind Soundwave. "I won't even imagine what those pests could do to my paint job!"

The metal screeched as Starscream abruptly changed directions and took a tunnel to their left. The reason was soon to be seen and to everyone's dismay, the AllSpark did as well.

They could not get more than a vague picture of what was in that tunnel, but it must have been more than thirty, probably even more than fifty half eaten, lifeless youngling frames. Some of them not even the size Jack was. Lying there, cuddled close to each other, probably since the late days of the war. Their optics were dim, of red color and blue, and yet both fractions had tried to help each other, console each other. They probably hadn't even understood yet what the war was about and that, a few vorns later, they may would have had to battle each other.

Optimus knew what they had seen there. In the darkest days of the Great War on Cybertron, many younglings and sparklings had lost their families. Most of them were destined to be raised by foster parents, but before that they were all taken to the orphan homes which were built in the safes area of Cybertron, but even there the war had left its traces. They must have fled from upper Iacon or probably even the neutral territories and have found these tunnels but either didn't find a way out or were too exhausted to keep trying.

"Prepare for the attack!" a Vehicon called out and as Arcee dared to turn around and look for the Vehicon, she saw the first swarm. They just came around the corner and the noise of their teeth, banging on each other as they announced their coming, was so unbelievably loud that it was hard to understand Starscream's instructions. The first Drone got taken out by the swarm and Arcee just couldn't look away as it screamed for help and stretched its arms out to her. But no one came to its assist.

Then, a hand laid on her back and as she turned to the one who was pushing her forward she couldn't really belief her eyes. Knock Out! She kept running faster, tried to keep up with the red colored Decepticon but he kept his hand on her back, pushing her forward, trying to make her faster.

"What...?" she uttered while she still tried to become faster but her legs just couldn't move that quickly.

"Lord Megatron ordered that there were to be no Autobot victims this solar cycle. The AllSpark would be by far too distraught about that," the Decepticon's medic merely answered. He did not look her in the eyes, but she could see the determined expression on his face and was surprised that Knock Out risked his paint job to save hers.

Suddenly, the shooting started. Knock Out still pushed her forward so that she could impossibly look back, but she heard the screeching and screaming mixed with many, many shots who apparently didn't hit anything. She could also hear the sharp cracking of metal getting torn apart as the scraplets started with their appetizer.

The AllSpark in the Prime's hands did not seem to notice anything. She sat there, her face like carved of stone. The disgust and grief too obvious. She had seen the younglings' corpses and Megatron could beat Starscream to scrap for making their presence in the tunnels so obvious.

All of a sudden, the seeker stopped. His feet on the metal screeched as he came to a halt and turned around.

"A dead end!" Bulkhead shouted over the noise of the screaming scraplets to his commander who placed the girl on the remnants of the collapsed tunnel. He hated nothing more than those tiny metal pests.

Then the Prime stepped forward again, next to his former Mentor, brother and opponent, his battle mask activated, his cannons charged.

"Autobots!"

"Decepticons!"

"_**Attack!**_"

And as the scraplets came closer and closer, the Vehicons shot forward, aiming for the ridiculously small insects, bringing one after the other down, just like the Autobots and the remaining Decepticons who shot from the distance.

But still the Vehicons fell one after another and the scraplets came so dangerously close, that it did not make a difference if they charged forward to attack them or if they waited for them to come.

Starscream, Megatron, and Optimus were the ones to build a shield around the AllSpark and to lead the others. But in the end they couldn't keep the scraplets from starting a direct attack. And there were coming more. One could hear them behind the tunnel walls, and echoing through the whole tunnel system. And one could hear something else echoing.

A battle cry appeared to be coming from out of nowhere and suddenly, as the next swarm of scraplets turned around the corner, Unicron stormed into them and shot them down. Bumblebee didn't know what kind of weapon that was, but it apparently send dark energon from out of his hands directly into the scraplets bodies and let them offline immediately.

Unfortunately, Unicron couldn't offline them as fast as new ones came and even with the Autobots and Decepticons assist, the scraplets appeared to never cease.

Bulkhead thought it was probably the sixth swarm that just came around the corner and he did not know how much longer they would be able to last, as they suddenly flew right past them, literally ignored them. Since when did scraplets ignore potential food? Especially living metal? The answer was too unpredictable and yet so obvious.

Thousands of scraplets headed towards Miko and even the ones who were already eating let go of their victims. They sat on the ground the walls or the rubble with still opened mouths, showing their teeth. Miko stood there, still this mourning expression on her face as she stretched out a hand and touched one of the scraplets between its optics. They turned around and stared at the Autobots with their mouths torn open, showing rows over rows of sharp teeth going through metal like through flesh.

Miko took a step forward and they returned their gazes back to her, stepping out of the way, but still looking at her... pleading? She held her head down, stretched out her hands so that they could nudge their heads against them, but shook her head as an answer to their question. Then, they closed their mouths and blinked at the Bots as if they were the most innocent beings ever existed.

"Why, out of everything you could have created, did you make scraplets?" Bulkhead mumbled as he examined the wounds on his armor.

She stepped closer, smiled up at her creation, the Wrecker who proofed to have more than just the spark on the right place.

"Because I could not just make your own kind to be your kinds' only potential enemies, could I?"

And then the screaming of metal was heard again, but this time the scraplets ate away the rubble that was in their way. It was gone in less than half a breem and the scraplets stepped aside to let them through.

Miko whispered something to them in a strange Cybertronian dialect, that only the chaos bringer appeared to understand and recognize, and then went on through the tunnels, the others following behind.

(-)

It wasn't a long way anymore until they came to the exit of the tunnel. It was a gap, just high enough so that Megatron and Optimus could fit through, but as they got out, they finally got reminded of the worst battles of the last days of war again, most of whom had been held here in Altihex, shortly before the Decepticons had been able to launch a devastating attack on Iacon.

Everything was burned down and destroyed. Wheeljack and Bulkhead remembered the day too well, just like Starscream did. As the civilians had hijacked one of the towers to demonstrate against the war, while the Decepticons were attacking. They had desperately tried to evacuate them, but the civilians did not cooperate, what ended in the destruction of the tower and them.

The tower was even visible from there. It wasn't much more than a collapsed, black bunch of rubble, but it had once been a truly imposing building.

Starscream coughed, to get their attention again.

"You will be taking the Tri-Torus Loop to Uraya and from Uraya to Iacon. Iacon is directly connected with Protihex through another part of the Tri-Torus Loop," he explained to the small group of Autobots and the seventeen remaining Vehicons, including the single higher ranked grounder they had, Knock Out.

"As far as I know, Altihex also has a direct connection to Iacon. Why do we make such a detour like that?" Arcee asked, hands on her hips.

"Because the Tri-Torus Loop got destroyed by the 'Cons as they attacked Altihex during the last days of the war," Wheeljack answered looking right at Starscream, who looked right back.

"Exactly," he said and transformed.

Just then, Dreadwing approached with five Insecticons, the furrows on their bodies showed too significantly why there were only five left. Insecticons were even more helpless when it came to attacking scraplets than normal Cybertronians were.

"Lord Megatron. The last swarms appear to be... replete," he said and bowed lightly before the AllSpark as he saw her.

"We know, Dreadwing. Fly ahead and secure the area of Uraya! Starscream, you, Soundwave and the other Flyers will make up the rearguard! I will lead the way."

Then they all transformed and the girl got into Optimus once more. Unicron walked the way from Altihex to Uraya and made up another part of the rear guard again.

Bumblebee for once tried to forget the war and imagined how it must have been to drive along the Tri-Torus Loop in the Golden age. How free one must have felt. He didn't even get disturbed by some of the holes blown into the Loop. As long as they could travel on it, it was fine to him.

And because they were relatively near the end of Altihex, it did not take them long to reach Uraya.

(-)

The former city-state turned out to be in an even worse shape than Altihex. As far as Optimus Prime could recall the events, some of Megatron's followers had bombed the city to its total destruction.

No one said a word as they passed the ruins and probably even some of their old friends. Arcee didn't even dare looking around. Who knew who was beneath all that rubble? Some of her old unit? Probably even Chromia or Flareup? She prayed for it not to be like that. But somewhere on this old planet were her friends, her family, her partners, Tailgate.

Megatron nearly disappeared behind the buildings as he flew above the city. Did he feel any regret to what he'd done to his own home?

"Yes, Arcee. He does," the AllSpark suddenly said. She could only hear it because she was driving so close to Optimus, didn't even realize how close.

"This planet meant more to him than you think."

She knew Optimus heard the girl, but he did not react in any way to what she said. He probably did not even think about it, or he already knew.

Bulkhead believed everyone was glad as they left Uraya and took the shorter Tri-Torus Loop towards Iacon. The towers there were still standing higher than anything else on Cybertron and still held the same magnificence as eons ago. They were already visible when they had just exited Uraya.

Unfortunately, the Tri-Torus Loop led past a few very important buildings of Iacon. Like for example the Hall of Records. Arcee had to admit she had never really paid attention to this building. She hadn't been in Iacon that often anyways, but as Optimus drove a bit slower, she could see how much it meant to him.

"This is where everything started. Had you not heard from the gladiator here..., who knows what would have happened?" the AllSpark whispered.

"Am I... permitted to ask you a question about the past?" he asked silently. None of their companions heard them. They didn't even pay more attention to them than usual.

"You are permitted, Orion."

"If I had not paid attention to what I had heard back then... if I hadn't gone to Alpha Trion with the information I have had... would there have ever been a war?" The AllSpark could hear his grief and the heavy guilt he has had to bear on his shoulder for so many centuries.

"You did pay attention, because I created you like you are. You were supposed, destined to hear Megatronus. Though it pains me to admit that so many of you died under purpose, I had to bring Cybertron back to its true notions. Freedom and the right to decide for oneself what is best. You have treated yourself as machines, what I could not see any longer. But I cannot see the death and pain and cruelty any longer either. This is why you have become a Prime. Optimus Prime, student of Alpha Trion, heir of the thirteen, carrier of the Matrix, chosen by Primus; You will lead this world to peace."

Optimus did not reply anything. There was nothing to reply anyway. Wheeljack and Bulkhead positioned themselves next to him and took him the sight of the hall. He was glad about that. Thinking about the past was not helpful in this moment and he certainly hadn't got any time for it. His fellow Autobots needed a strong leader who knew what was to do, not one who wished he had never become a Prime.

_"Very little of the great leaders ever wish to become one," _Alpha Trion had once told him after he had received the Matrix of Leadership. Optimus knew that there always had to be one and he did not wish any of his comrades to have to bear such a burden.

He suddenly felt how the AllSpark changed its position. It laid back, closed its eyes and stayed like this. He could hear a rasp every time she breathed.

**::Ratchet, I believe the atmosphere is already starting to affect her well-being.::-Optimus Prime**

**::I already supposed it would start in one or two breems. We can't do anything Prime, but don't worry, the AllSpark is going to be alright.::-Ratchet**

Wheeljack snorted.

**::Who for Primus sake cares about the AllSpark? What's with Miko? You're not really trying to tell us that we should already be forgettin our lil girl, are you Doc?::-Wheeljack**

No one answered him, because it was just like he said. Miko would survive until they were at the core, but how big was the chance that her body would survive the travel back, if it already was affected by the atmosphere so that it was obvious right now?

They passed the last towers of Iacon, traveled further on the Loop and already saw the Insecticons and Dreadwing come back once more. The whole procession went slower in order to give Lord Unicron a chance to catch up with them. Neither Megatron nor Optimus or any of the others understood why the Chaos Bringer let himself sink down to such a level. He was being treated like a foot soldier! Why would he bow before anyone? The answer was clear. Optimus would be more than willing to bow before Primus just like Megatron had been willing to bow before Unicron, but the AllSpark was a much higher posted dignity. It was the highest. It _had _created the Chaos Bringer and Primus, let alone all of the other species they did not know about yet.

The Tri-Torus Loop went on and on and on. It wouldn't have taken so long if they were traveling faster or had just taken a Space- or GroundBridge from Iacon to Protihex, but the chance of finding one which was still functional was rather small.

In the rear-view mirror, Optimus saw Starscream, Soundwave and the last of the Decepticon Flyers approach. It took a few more breems until they finally entered Protihex and the Flyers plus Unicron rejoined them.

"Hmmm... I've never been to the core before, so... where is it?" Knock Out asked the Prime as he let the AllSpark exit. He still did not like the way it sounded when she breathed. The rasp got louder and louder.

"We will have to go to the Well. That is the most direct path to the core."

Megatron transformed and landed before them, "Regarding that none of us possesses the knowledge to where the Well is located; I suggest you lead our way from now on, Optimus."

The Prime nodded, walked past his opponent and directly towards the center of Protihex. Arcee caught up with him, knowing that Wheeljack and Bulkhead would not let any of the Decepticons near the girl.

"Optimus, are you certain you should lead him to the very center of Cybertron? If it's really going to be revived, what would keep him from just going down there and threaten us to do this again? I have a bad feeling about this..." The Autobot leader frowned and looked down at the two-wheeler.

"You are right to worry, Arcee. But I believe not even Megatron would be so blind to make the same mistake twice."

She nodded, "I hope you are right Optimus. I really hope you are."

"I never expected the day to come that I would be the one wandering around on my siblings' lifeless husk! Would it not have been more likely that I had destroyed him with my raw power?"

Bumblebee did not know what to do as the Chaos Bringer talked to himself right behind the scout. He tensed and tried to walk a bit to the side, saw that Knock Out too was coward as he was walking to the other side next to Unicron, looking provocatively to the other side as if there was something else to see except for ruins and rubble.

The AllSpark longed for the old days on this planet. The days when the younglings had been playing on the streets where the long dead soldiers now laid. Where the buildings were so great and imposing the creatures from any world would travel here to see them. When there was nothing the high council had to care about less than the peace between them and their visitors from other worlds. The days when it had still been obvious that each of the Transformers held a spark with the very life source of Primus, of her. When Decepticons and Autobots had not been enemies yet. When the different fractions had not even existed yet.

She knew she was sacrificing a creature which had nothing to do with this war. She hadn't been responsible for their creation. Of course she had known them, as she knew everything, but she could not give them the girl back once her body died and she felt that it would, in short time. Its temperature was rising rapidly and breathing got harder and harder per each breath she took.

Then, suddenly her body got scooped up. She knew who it was, Bulkhead of course, but he did not look at her. To him, the AllSpark had stolen his best friend, his little girl. She would never be able to make amends if it came to the Wrecker. And yet he helped her as she was falling weak.

"We are there," Optimus Prime said, coming to a halt and turning around to Bulkhead and the AllSpark. Then he opened his chest plates, revealing the Matrix of leadership. The gate before him, a normal gate of which one would not really wonder what was held behind it, opened as he came closer, letting the Matrix unlock it. The Prime went down the stairs first, and then Bulkhead and the Autobots followed after. Wheeljack and Arcee were suspicious towards the Decepticons who would make up the end of their group, but went down nevertheless.

Knock Out shuddered as the gate abruptly closed behind him and he quickly onlined his headlights. Unicron grunted at that and murmured something about 'Decepticon cowards'.

At the end of the stairs they had to go through several aisles and at the end of each was another gate. But the gate they had to go through was the highest one and Optimus had to open his chest plates once more to get access.

Ratchet's optics widened as they saw the hall behind it. From any direction several paths led to a giant, flat ring of metal, held it in place and allowed visitors to walk upon it. Only a quarter of the ring was seen as the very core of Cybertron was so big that it shielded the rest.

Unicron stepped next to the Prime; the expressions on his face could be interpreted in a countless number of ways.

"It has been a long time... brother," he whispered as he slowly stepped closer to the core.

Bulkhead set the AllSpark on the ring and took a step back, so that he stood, like everyone else except for Unicron, behind the ring. She lifted herself up, raised her hands and lightly touched the core with her palms.

_"My creation, my very own will, son to me, give me your hand and I will let you rise for the well of this and any race's future," _she said once more in this strange Cybertronian dialect which no one of them could understand except for Unicron and Primus themselves.

It was a matter of nano-kliks in which a creature formed itself within the core and stepped out of the pure energy as a transformer. As Primus.

All at once, the Autobots and Decepticons bowed. Even Megatron did, though not for as long as the others. Unicron on the other hand stepped up to him, being only a bit taller than him and Ratchet didn't come around the thought of them being much like Optimus and Megatron. They gave each other the same gaze of regret and pure hate.

The AllSpark looked up at them and they turned their attention to her, bowed before her.

"Unicron, son of mine, I appeal on you; join us. Not in the core, but in the Well. Let for ones the peace be the victor so that we truly will be able to light the darkest hour. So that all will be one."

The two brethren looked at each other, darkness and light, bad and good, war and peace. Everything they embodied. Unicron nodded.

"My time has come, my war is long over. It has come the point where the first return at last."

The girl smiled and nodded up at him. Then she turned around towards Bulkhead, showed him to come down to her eye level. He did so, crouched down to the ground like he sometimes had done back when Miko had still been _Miko_. But he could not foresee what was coming then. She leaned close to his face and placed a kiss right between his optics.

"You are brave, Wrecker. May your courageous spark never end being that."

With weak legs, she walked over to the two giants, laying a hand on the servo of each.

"I have a last question if I may," Megatron suddenly said, stepping up onto the ring. The AllSpark followed him with her eyes.

"Who will win the war?"

She touched Primus and Unicrons hands and they stepped into the core, disappearing in its energy. Then she stepped onto the edge of the ring, turned her head once more to look at him.

"This war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be ceased."

And with these words, she went into the core, a bright wave of light coming from it as she did so and the present ones had to shield their optics from it. It ate it's was through the walls, the gaps the gorges until whole Cybertron was lightened up. It felt like joors but in the end it weren't more than a few nano-kliks until the light faded, not completely, though.

And then, a creature formed inside the energy, stumbled out of it, coughed and looked up.

"Bulkhead?" Miko asked with a high voice, swaying caused by her having problems to stand until her eyes closed and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Miko!" the Wrecker called out and rushed over to her, scooping the small creature up. Ratchet followed closely behind, flowing quick scans over her lifeless body. Optimus looked at her and shortly before Megatron and the Decepticon's disappeared he heard the Decepticon Lord say, "Indeed, Miko. Yours is the face I may never forget."

Suddenly horribly aware of what was going on behind him, Optimus turned to Ratchet and Bulkhead who were both bent over the little girl's frame. Only a frame or was there still life in it?

"Ratchet, how is her condition?" he demanded, feeling as if time went on so much slower than before.

"Her heart is still beating, but..." he looked up at the Prime, pure sadness in his eyes.

Bulkhead stood up, held her close to his spark, keeping his optics only on her how they had always been since he had met her.

"Heaven word, lost to the stars..."

* * *

_Yeah, I know. Did not end this chapter with a space/ground Bridge sentence did I? I'm bad and *mimicking Starscream* **unpredictable!**_

_There is going to be an Epiloque because I won't be as cruel and simply let the story end like this. If you guys have any questions who are still left open by the story or have anything else I gotta put into the epiloque please write in the reviews or PM me :)_

_A big hug to all of you out there and please review! It's Christmas after all :D_


	5. Epilogue

_****Hi guys!_

_So here's the Epilogue. I hope you like it._

_Many thanks to Challenger2011!_

_I, unfortunately, do not own transformers or the characters or anything!_

_If you have any questions to the story please don't hesitate to PM me or write it as a Review. And if there is something you do not like about this story or if you have some advice for me, or some critic and so on, I'd love to know it :)_

_And just so that you know, you're Reviews always make my days ;)_

_It may not be the end of the year yet, still I wish you a happy new year! _

_Until all are one!_

* * *

_**The AllSpark needs a Body**_

_**Epilogue**_

_**Third POV, three weeks later**_

"Optimus, the Elite Guard reached Cybertron! Kup, Grimlock and the others are on their way to earth. Shall I transmit landing coordinates?" Ironhide questioned, but, as he did not receive an answer, simply did what he thought was best and transmitted the coordinates. After that he turned around and entered the med-bay where his leader leaned against the wall, drowning in his own thoughts of guilt again about the loss of the human.

"No change in its condition?" the Wrecker asked, trying to sound compassionate. Unfortunately he'd never been the best at faking. Especially not about emotions. After all, he hadn't even known the fleshling lying on the berth, which was like thirty times bigger than its body. Dozens of monitors and beeping machines were hooked up to its frame of which he had, by now, only seen the head, he guessed. The rest of its body was covered by a few blankets. First Ironhide had thought the thing was dead but as he had taken a closer look, the slight movement of its chest was visible.

"No. Still not," Ratchet answered, without even trying to suppress his sadness about that. Who knew, Ironhide would probably be mourning as much as the rest of the team did if he had arrived a bit earlier. But the revival of Cybertron had been the actual thing that had helped him reunite with his old mates, thus coming before the 'incident', as they all called it, would have been really unlikely and completely coincidental.

He coughed, "Erm... Prime, Kup and his team are on their way to earth. I guess you better..."

The Prime separated himself from the wall, his optics still laid on the creature. Ironhide knew how much more it hurt Optimus to see another creature harmed than to feel the pain himself. Even though it was no Cybertronian.

"Yes, I will attend to it," he murmured absentminded. Ironhide laid a hand on his friends shoulder.

"Prime, I may not know the creature lying there, but I do know how much it meant to you or 'Bulk or Wheeljack. If it sacrificed itself so that we could return home, I believe that it would never have wanted to see you all like this. And do not think that it will be forgotten, each of Cybertron's inhabitants knows whom we have to thank for such a great gift. As you said, even Megatron does."

To their dismay, Bulkhead had heard him and though he had chosen to speak very little lately, he chose to raise his voice in that very moment.

"You are talking about her as if she was dead! Do you not even dare thinking about that outcome, Ironhide!" he hissed through gritted teeth, jostling the Wrecker colleague as he walked past. The femme, Arcee, followed Bulkhead closely, sending gazes filled with hate at Ironhide.

"First: s_he! _Miko is a _she_, not an _it_!

Second: she had no choice! The AllSpark simply wiped out her will!

And Third: I don't care what you or the rest of Cybertron thinks; she _will _survive!"

Ironhide's gaze fell to the ground in shame at the words of his former Wrecker buddy. Why did he feel guilty? No one's ever had told him that these things had genders! In fact, no one's ever had told him anything about these fleshies.

The only thing he knew was that it was how Ratchet had put it, surprising, how stable her condition was. The only thing that bothered him was that the chance of her mind still being in her body was so incredibly small. Ratchet had told him that these organics couldn't breathe Cybertron's atmosphere for long without suffering critical damage to their complete system, which could, in the worst cases, lead to their death, as he suspected. They had brought her back to earth as fast as they could, but she apparently had already inhaled too much of the toxic atmosphere. At the base, Ratchet had done anything he could and they had apparently sent her to many organic physicians on this planet who might have been capable of helping her, but none appeared to have a clue. In the end, Ratchet had decided that it would be best to leave her at the base. Ironhide believed that the organic physicians had given up on her, but as he knew Ratchet, no victim was dead to him until it's spark wasn't already extinguished and hers was definitely not. That was, if the organic even has had a spark in the first place...

"Ironhide, we have detected other Decepticon signals entering earth's atmosphere. Prepare to investigate and always keep in mind; we have a truce until things are settled!" Optimus ordered and the old Wrecker transformed, leaving the base behind through the GroundBridge.

It was still an odd feeling not to be able to aim his weapons at every Decepticreep in his range. Apparently, Optimus and Megatron were making some sort of contract to 'settle things'. Ironhide wondered if the war would really be over after that, like the AllSpark had said.

* * *

June Darby entered the Autobot base, her son loafing around on the passenger seat. If the Autobots had at first thought the mother would leave them alone, they had deceived themselves. She had also been here as Raf had laid on the berth and she would certainly be here too if it was Jack. But no, if it had been Jack, her son would be in a hospital and not with the Autobots. As much as she liked and respected Ratchet's and Optimus' decisions, they could not decide what was best for the children. Probably if the three had been children of their kind, but they weren't.

Her car came to a halt inside the base and Jack left it, still not saying a single word. He had stayed silent since June has had a little... dispute with the Autobot leader when she had gotten informed about Miko and what had happened. She had to say, that, in the end, she felt a little guilty about talking to Optimus like that. One of her main arguments had been that he had broken his word. After what had happened to Rafael, he had said he would do anything to keep all harm from humanity, but he hadn't done the least. He had even helped Miko to kill herself. Had taken her to a foreign world without any protective gear and had let her sacrifice herself with the full knowledge that it would mean her death. Granted, she could understand him. It was his home and he had to make a decision for a whole race on his own, but sacrificing one of the children - who could also have been Jack! - was simply too much. As a mother, she felt with Miko's family, whom the government still hadn't told the story. The only thing they had been told was that their daughter was critical and that her death was most likely inevitable. They were neither allowed to get her home nor to even see her. How would she have reacted if the government had told her that about her little boy? Her little Jack?

"Hey guys," he muttered and made his way towards the first platform. From there, he could see the entrance including main screen and GroundBridge, just like the medical bay. Bulkhead was sitting on the berth again, staring at his charge while Arcee was talking with Ratchet, or more likely whispering. She had been the first one giving up on Miko, though the two-wheeler still hoped she was wrong.

"_Where's Raf?"_

"Yes, where's Raf?" Arcee asked, ignoring June as she sat down on the couch next to her son. The black haired nurse felt a bit awkward considering the fact that he was giving her the cold shoulder.

"No clue. I guess he's grounded again." Jack answered exhausted. He could still see how they had come running out of the GroundBridge, Miko's limp frame in Prime's hands. None of them had paid any attention to how shocked and harassed Raf had been at the sight of her. Jack had already seen Raf lying on the berth, Raf had never seen anyone there as injured, except for Bulkhead. But Bulkhead had recovered after a few weeks and woken up after a few days. Miko, however, had not. Did the Bots not realize that the young boy was more than traumatized? After all, Miko had been like another sister to him.

Jack knew that he hadn't been in school since a few days, as everything had become too much for him. Out of compassion, Jack covered that all up. Raf certainly didn't want the Bots to worry about him. Especially not 'Bee.

"Hey...you wanna go out on a ride?" Arcee tried to distract him again. They all had been strangely gentle to them lately, as hard it was to believe, Ratchet too.

"Sure," the teenager mumbled, shambling down the metal stairs.

Arcee transformed so that he could get on and they both sped off, Jack leaving June behind without wasting another thought at his mother. She had the slight hint of cognizance that she might have gone too far this time.

* * *

"Hey, you know that Slash Monkey's gonna make a second concert in the US? I'm just saying, you know? They seem to be more famous in the US than we thought! Ratchet said that there's a chance you could hear me. That you were in some sort of waking stasis and that you just can't get yourself to wake up."

"Bulkhead... I said there's a small chance." the medic cut in, desperately trying to keep the Wrecker from giving himself too much hope. He was naïve as a youngling if it was about his human friend.

"Yeah, I know. But there still is one, isn't there? And if there is, I don't want to leave her all alone." he answered, giving the medic a look that would have let June's heart melt if only it came from Optimus...

She pardoned the big, bulky Autobot, seeing that he was suffering more than she did. Somehow, she understood why Jack was so... addicted to their company. They were interesting creatures, though not that kind of alien one would have thought existed out there.

She sighed and noticed Optimus turning from the big screen towards her and giving her a small but noticeable smile. She nodded as an answer, stood up and excused herself. Having their company may suit Jack, but it wasn't really her thing. Probably if she was a bit younger...

* * *

My eyes fluttered open and it took me some time to get myself to sit up. I felt dizzy and couldn't really concentrate. It was also kind of pretty hard to move. And I was tired, but I knew I couldn't get myself back to sleep again. It was way too dark and I couldn't even remember where I was. No seriously, it was too dark to see. I couldn't even see my hand when I – with plenty of effort –held it in front of my face.

With a hearty yawn, I let my legs dangle over the rim of my bed, noticing that the wood was strangely cold. This was my bed, wasn't it? After all, what else could I be?

I jumped off and let out a little scream as I fell onto the hard ground. What? There was a carpet on our floor! I was to one thousand percent sure that there was supposed to be a carpet! And since when was the distance from my bed to the ground so long?

I crawled on all four limbs towards the door – or at least where I thought the door was located. It was confusingly arduous and my arms and legs were soon starting to complain. As I had already expected, there was no door. But my head crashed against something else. Solid metal, judging by the temperature of it. I followed it, cautiously stretching out a hand in front of me, in case I would crash against another wall. Granted, I regretted all of those countless horror-movies. My ingenious fantasy imagined some pretty disgusting creepy-crawly things right in front of me, just waiting for me to reach out and touch them...

But as I got to some sort of corner and stairs, I finally had an enlightenment. There was nothing creepy around here! Now I simply had to remember where to go...

My bare knees carried me carefully over the metal ground and through some corridors. Strange, since when did I wear dresses? The last time must have been in elementary school.

I yawned a few times and it got harder and harder for me to keep my eyes open. "First... Second... Third..." I mumbled as I counted the different doors I passed. "Please let it be open!"

To my dismay, the door wasn't open and I unfortunately knew way too well that I wouldn't be able to reach the switch. I wouldn't even try. My body hurt and I was by far too tired. But now that I knew where I was, I could go back to sleep without any worries. Here I was save.

* * *

Bumblebee broke off his recharge sooner than the others just like always, though he wondered if Bulkhead was already up. He sometimes was, regarding that his sorrow about Miko kept him restless. So the young scout hopped off his berth and opened the door to his quarters, activating the light on the floor.

Shocked, the scout let a bunch of curses escape his crushed vocal processor. This was the first time he was lucky the humans only heard a few beeps and clicking noises. Also it was the first time he was lucky Raf wasn't around.

Directly in front of Bulkheads quarters, Miko sat leaning against the door, head rested on her shoulders, arms crossed over her chest. He had to confess that she looked cute this way. As if she was guarding her best friend.

Then, Bumblebee panicked. She was unconscious! Her eyes were closed and she'd still been in a deep stasis yesterday! What was he supposed to do? Get her back to the med-bay? Get her over to Ratchet? Was he even allowed to carry her?

The scout tiptoed on the spot nervously, looking towards the medical bay, than to Ratchets quarters. Or should he wake up Optimus? Was it his duty to inform his leader first? With another look at the unconscious Miko, he quickly rushed over to Ratchet's quarters. If he woke him up, everyone else would wake up too. That was for sure.

"_R-Ratchet? Are you up?"_

What a stupid question. The light was off and he laid on his berth. The scout bravely stepped forward, tipping the old medic on the shoulder.

"_Ratchet? Ratchet? Ratchet?"_

A heavy bang was heard as a wrench hit the scouts head and he whimpered while holding his head and rocking back and forth, trying to ease the pain.

The medic's headlights turned on and he groaned.

"Bumblebee! Do you have to sneak into my quarters in the middle of the night?! What's with you? Oh, don't you make such a fuss, it's merely a dent!"

The young scout trembled through Ratchet's quarters, not able to think clear at the sudden burst of pain. Then, Ratchet grabbed his arm, holding him still while he examined the dent.

"Hmmm... I still got it," he mumbled to himself. "Naah, you'll life. Now, speak up. What in Primus name makes you sneak into my quarters? You should have known very well that that couldn't end well for you, shouldn't you?"

Bumblebee nodded hectically, reminding himself of the situation's urgency. _"Miko! She's unconscious! In front of Bulk's quarters!" _he gasped.

"_WHAT?!_" And suddenly 'Bee was alone in Ratchet's quarters.

"Ratchet! What happened?!" Optimus demanded through the walls, obviously woken up by the medic's exclamation. Heavy steps were heard from the Prime's quarters and a door hissed open. As Bumblebee rushed outside, he saw Ratchet kneeling in front of Bulkheads door and Optimus quickly approaching. The medic lifted a finger, showing them to be silent.

"She's asleep. We should grant her some rest," he whispered and sounded more than pleased as he lifted her up.

"_I don't think you should get her to the med-bay again, 'Ratch."_

"Why?"

"_Easy thing. She apparently already woke up once and tried to get to 'Bulk. I'd say we let her recharge with him."_

Ratchet gave Optimus a look and, as he received a nod from the Autobot leader, opened the door to Bulkhead's quarters. Like Arcee, Bulkhead mostly chose to recharge in his vehicle form. Ratchet simply opened the door and laid the girl inside. None of them woke up. Bumblebee snickered. The Decepticons could have invaded Jasper and none of them would wake up, that was sure.

"Now, he hopefully won't freak out when he wakes up," Ratchet muttered, returning to his quarters as if nothing had happened.

* * *

_**Third POV, a few days later**_

Optimus leaned at the wall of the med-bay, nodding at Ratchets words while he watched Bulkhead and Miko with a small smile.

"In the three weeks of stasis her body grew weak and her muscles atrophied. It is comparable to Bulkhead's condition a few months ago. But it unfortunately will take longer to regenerate her strength."

The Autobot leader laid a hand on his old friends shoulder. "As long as she can regenerate, we are to be glad for that gift. And for such a skilled medic."

On the ground, Bulkhead laid behind Miko on his side lifting his leg up simultaneously with her. But she appeared to have a lot more problems than the Wrecker with that simple exercise. Through gritted teeth and with a big frown on her face she gasped while Bulkhead smiled down at her and patiently counted.

"One... two... threeeeeee..."


End file.
